PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Palaniappan, Latha P. AU - Muzaffar, Amy L. AU - Wang, Elsie J. AU - Wong, Eric C. AU - Orchard, Trevor J. TI - Shared Medical Appointments: Promoting Weight Loss in a Clinical Setting AID - 10.3122/jabfm.2011.03.100220 DP - 2011 May 01 TA - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine PG - 326--328 VI - 24 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.jabfm.org/content/24/3/326.short 4100 - http://www.jabfm.org/content/24/3/326.full SO - J Am Board Fam Med2011 May 01; 24 AB - Introduction: Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are 90-minute group appointments for patients with similar medical complaints. SMAs include components of a traditional office visit but provide further emphasis on health education. The effectiveness of SMAs on weight-loss in an outpatient setting has not been studied.Methods: Weight-loss SMAs were offered by one physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Teaching content included Diabetes Prevention Program materials. This analysis includes patients who attended at least one SMA (n = 74) compared with patients in the same physician's practice who had at least one office visit and a body mass index ≥25 kg/m2 (n = 356).Results: The SMA group had a higher proportion of women than the comparison group (76% vs 64%) and were older (mean, 52.4 years; SD, 13.1 years vs mean, 47.0 years; SD, 13.3 years). SMA patients on average lost 1.0% of their baseline weight. Patients in the comparison group on average gained 0.8% of their baseline weight.Discussion: SMAs may be a viable option for physicians to promote weight loss in the clinical setting.