Yesterday Professor Simon Griffin accepted the Paper of the Year award at the Royal College of General Practitioners annual conference on behalf of lead author Dr Amy Ahern and coauthors of the Lancet paper ‘Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of referral to a commercial open group behavioural weight management programme in adults with overweight and obesity: 5-year follow-up of the WRAP randomised controlled trial’.

The WRAP trial studied the long-term impact of two durations of a commercial weight-loss programme (WeightWatchers) on weight, type 2 diabetes and obesity-related diseases in 1,267 people with overweight or obesity, compared to standard care. Watch a short video introducing the WRAP trial:

In a second video WRAP Trial chief investigator Dr Amy Ahern discusses their findings, which indicate that the assumption that all weight lost with commercial weight management programmes is regained within five years is incorrect, and the implications this has for healthcare costs.

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• Ahern Al et al. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of referral to a commercial open group behavioural weight management programme in adults with overweight and obesity: 5-year follow-up of the WRAP randomised controlled trial. Lancet (2022) DOI:10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00226-2