Online Nutrition Program Feasible Post-Sleeve Gastrectomy

TOPLINE:

Recruiting and retaining adults in an online nutrition education intervention after sleeve gastrectomy was feasible, and although the program received positive feedback, more study is needed to evaluate its efficacy.

METHODOLOGY:

• Many patients face challenges with nutrient intake, absorption, and food tolerance after undergoing bariatric surgery, necessitating ongoing dietary support.
• Researchers conducted a 10-week randomized controlled trial in Australia to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an online nutritional education program in 68 adults (97% women; mean age, 48.2 years) who had undergone sleeve gastrectomy at least 12 months prior and had expressed interest in participation.
• The patients were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 35) or a wait-list control group (n = 33). Intervention group participants joined a private Facebook group moderated by an advanced accredited practicing dietitian who posted a daily nutrition tip or recipe.
• The feasibility measures were recruitment, retention, engagement, and acceptability. Engagement was tracked through self-reported frequency of reading posts, and objective data were collected by tracking total weekly number of views, likes, and comments on these posts.
• Preliminary efficacy was assessed using change in diet quality measured via the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS).

TAKEAWAY:

• The overall retention rate was 66% at 10 weeks, with a retention rate of 74% in the intervention group and 58% in the wait-list control group.
• The highest level of engagement occurred in the first few weeks of the intervention. The recipe posts were consistently popular over the 10-week study period.
• Most participants rated the intervention positively, with 70% enjoying participation, 83% finding the information easy to understand, 70% finding the information relevant, and 63% saying the cooking tips were useful.
• Compared with baseline, the intervention group showed an average increase of 0.2 in ARFS points and of 1.6 in food skill confidence units, but neither finding was statistically significant.

IN PRACTICE:

“Recruiting and retaining adults post‐SG [post-sleeve gastrectomy] into a nutrition intervention is feasible. Low‐cost recruitment attracted strong interest from women to identify greater support to know what to eat following SG [sleeve gastrectomy]. A future, fully powered trial to assess intervention efficacy is warranted,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

The study, led by Cathy Harbury, PhD, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia, was published online in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

LIMITATIONS:

The Facebook group title, Online Cooking Tips for Sleevers, may have unintentionally created a ceiling effect as almost half of the participants had a high quality of diet at baseline. Additionally, the brief duration of the intervention may not have been sufficient for long-term behavior change. Men were underrepresented, possibly due to the greater appeal of “cooking tips” to women.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was supported by the Australian government Research Training Program scholarship. The authors declared no 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.