NCT02725905

Weight Management Counseling in Medical Schools

Weight Management Counseling in Medical Schools: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 3,199 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Worcester · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Eight U.S. medical schools will be participating in the study: Weight Management Counseling in Medical Schools, also known as MSWEIGHT. This is a five-year randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to compare the efficacy of two approaches to learning weight management counseling: 1)traditional education (TE) and; 2) multi-modal educational intervention (MME). The study aims are to refine and compare the efficacy of MME to TE on observed student weight management counseling skills measured through the primary outcome, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Detailed description

Eight U.S. medical schools are matched and then randomized to one of two educational interventions, MME or TE. Schools randomized to TE represent "usual care" and will continue the current curriculum. The MME arm will build upon the traditional usual curriculum at the medical school. The MME is a multi-modal educational intervention of a series of interactive learning components focused on integrated weight management counseling. This MME intervention for weight management counseling uses the 5As model based on the updated American Heart Association (AHA) /American College of Cardiology (ACC) /The Obesity Society (TOS) and updated NHLBI guidelines.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Multi-Modal Education (MME)	The MME curriculum focuses on developing weight management counseling (WMC) skills through several components: 1) a web course focused on WMC knowledge and clinical skill competencies; 2) WMC role-play exercises for an opportunity to use an algorithm to practice patient-centered WMC; 3) personal weight management exercises to increase awareness of "Assist" activities (e.g. daily food monitoring using mobile apps, etc); 4) obesity bias assessments, video, and discussions to modify attitudes of implicit weight bias; 5) a formative web-based encounter to interact with and receive feedback from a standardized patient; and 6) an enhanced clerkship rotation focusing on providing learning to preceptors and allowing students to observe preceptors counseling patients who are overweight or obese.
BEHAVIORAL	Traditional Education (TE)	Current curriculum may consist of topics related to biology, population health, or counseling skills. TE also may include sporadic stand-alone lectures or small group discussions conducted separately or as a part of a patient interviewing or behavioral course.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-12-01
• Primary completion: 2020-11-30
• Completion: 2022-11-30
• First posted: 2016-04-01
• Last updated: 2023-05-17

Locations

8 sites across 1 country: United States