An economic evaluation of distance lifestyle counselling among overweight employees

Marieke van Wier, a researcher in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Institute for Health and Care Research at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, discusses a study that compared the cost-effectiveness of three different forms of distance lifestyle counselling for overweight workers. An economic evaluation was conducted alongside a three-arm randomized controlled trial that compared the effectiveness of a six-month counselling program offered through self-help brochures, phone intervention or internet intervention, with a two-year time horizon. The internet intervention was found to be more effective for weight loss than self-help brochures alone, and at relatively the same cost. The phone intervention was not cost-effective compared with self-help brochures.