Background: Obesity is an increasing public health problem in most developed countries. Australia has a growing health crisis of morbid obesity, BMI > 40kg/m2. The New Dimensions Reconditioning (NDR) program is an initiative undertaken by Epworth Healthcare to increase the uptake of healthy lifestyle choices following a bariatric intervention including surgery, as well as structured programs of dietary modification, exercise or medication. The dietitian provides education on healthy eating and practical dietary management.
Aims: The aims of this project were to evaluate the feasibility of the NDR program and the impact on patient outcomes following completion of the program.
Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal, repeated measures, quasi-experimental project. Patients were weighed regularly. They completed the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES) before and again at the end of the program.
Results: Thirty six patients participated in the study and 18 completed the pre and post IES surveyAt baseline, eight patients were super obese (BMI > 50kg/m2) and seven were morbidly obese (BMI > 40kg/m2). The majority were female with a median age of 51 (range 18 – 80) years old. At program completion, 3 (9%) patients had gained weight (median 5.25kg, range 0.5 – 5.5 kg) and 32 (91%) had lost weight (median 2.1 kg, range 0.15 – 19kg). Post scores were higher in the three intuitive eating processes of unconditional permission to eat, eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and reliance on internal hunger/satiety cues. There was a statistically significant difference between pre and post IES total score, z = -3.280, p = .001.
Conclusion: The NDR program has a positive impact on the patients’ weight loss. Patients reported that they were more likely to eat in response to physical rather than emotional or behavioural cues. These findings confirm the important role of dietitians in the program.