Robin Masheb, PhD, Senior Research Scientist in Psychiatry and Director of the Veterans Initiative for Eating and Weight at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, is the first author of a paper that summarizes policy and research recommendations from a 2016 conference on weight management at the VA.
Masheb was co-chair of the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D)-sponsored state-of-the-art conference, “Weight Management in the Veterans Health Administration.”
Held in March 2016, the gathering featured discussions about behavioral interventions, pharmacotherapy, and bariatric surgery, and how to combine all three approaches to help veterans manage their weight.
Findings were shared in 13 articles published in a special April supplement of The Journal of General Internal Medicine. Masheb and her colleagues outlined policy and research recommendations from the Behavioral Interventions Workgroup at the conference.
They recommended the VA establish a culture for weight management throughout its healthcare delivery system, and identify a population-level health metric to measure the impact of interventions for weight management.
“First, it is critically important that high-level (VA) leadership establish a vision and a culture that supports striving for a healthy weight through supportive directives and clear policy statements about program structure,” the authors wrote. “Second, (the VA) should develop a population-based indicator of impact that combines intervention and effectiveness.”
For example, according to the authors, the VA should track the proportion of overweight or obese veterans who lose meaningful weight. “This metric could be used at multiple levels, including the provider’s patient panel, a clinical population (for example, diabetes), a facility or regional population, and the national (VA) population.”
They also recommended the VA better communicate to staff the requirements of the VA’s MOVE! Weight Management Program and better track veterans’ use of the program and their results.
Other papers published by the journal examined the effectiveness of weight loss medication for veterans, and outcomes from those who underwent bariatric surgery.
Masheb and her fellow conference co-chairs are planning a panel for the annual HSR&D Conference this summer in Washington, D.C. They hope to present results from last year’s weight management conference and entertain ideas for further research.