TOPLINE

Among patients with overweight or obesity receiving dietetic treatment in Dutch primary care, one-third of patients achieved clinically meaningful weight loss of ≥ 5% within 1 year, and most of them did so within the first 3 months of treatment.

METHODOLOGY

• A retrospective cohort study analyzed electronic health records from the Nivel Primary Care Database in Netherlands.
• A total of 4503 patients aged ≥ 18 years (median age, 50 years) with a BMI ≥ 25 and a primary diagnosis of overweight were included; 74% had obesity (BMI ≥ 30).
• Patients received routine dietetic treatment in primary care between 2016 and 2020, with a median of four visits over 5 months.
• Primary outcome was achievement of ≥ 5% weight loss from baseline, assessed at 3-month intervals (0-3, 0-6, 0-9, and 0-12 months).
• Researchers examined associations between patient characteristics (age, sex, comorbidities) and treatment factors (number of visits, total visit time) with successful weight loss.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 33% of patients achieved ≥5% weight loss during treatment, with a median time to success of 3 months and a median of four visits.
• In the first 3 months, each additional visit was associated with threefold higher odds of achieving ≥ 5% weight loss (odds ratio [OR], 3.0; 95% CI, 2.3-4.0).
• Female patients had 26% lower odds of achieving the weight-loss goal in the first 3 months compared with male patients (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.62-0.88) as were patients with one or more comorbidity (type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, or hypertension; OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.60-0.91).
• At 6 months, each additional visit was associated with 61% higher odds of success (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.27-2.03), though the benefit of longer visit time diminished when patients already had frequent sessions.
• After 9 months, only age was positively associated with achieving ≥5% weight loss, whereas after 12 months, only the number of visits remained positively associated.

IN PRACTICE

"These results underline that the early phase of treatment is important for initiating weight change, and that the number of visits plays a central role in achieving and sustaining clinically meaningful outcomes. Dietitians may consider more intense support in the initial treatment months by increasing visit frequency. However, as these findings are observational, it cannot be concluded that increasing the number of early visits will in itself improve out comes," the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Annemieke van de Riet, Wageningen University and Research in Wageningen, Human Nutrition and Health, Research Group Global Nutrition, Netherlands. It was published online on August 11, 2026, in Clinical Obesity.

LIMITATIONS

Considerable variation in visit frequency and duration limited comparability between patients and timepoints. A large proportion of patients was lost to follow-up after one or two sessions, potentially introducing bias. Inclusion criteria may have selected a more engaged subgroup, limiting generalizability to all patients seeking dietetic care for weight management.

DISCLOSURES

This study was supported by ZonMw under the Allied Health Care programme 2019-2022. The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.