Outcome Evauation Issues in the Behavioural Treatment of Obesity

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Abstract
Since obesity is a persuasive health problem in our society one would expect that treatment outcome evaluation of weight control methods has received a great deal of attention. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Weight control fads reach heights of widespread popularity despite the absence of extensive clinical evaluation. Follow-up evaluations that have been reported tend to be extremely brief. For example, the vast majority of behavior modification studies of obesity have reported follow-up data for only 6 to 8 weeks (Brownell, in press). In fact, in a recent report, Gotestam (1979) found only three behavior modification studies of obesity with a follow-up of one year or longer. This is a particularly crucial problem due to the high proportion of relapse observed during the first year after obesity treatment.