title: Development and implementation cost analysis of telephone- and Internet-based interventions for the maintenance of weight loss.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Weight Loss Maintenance Trial (WLM) was a multicenter, randomized trial comparing two weight loss maintenance interventions, a personal contact (PC) program with primarily telephone-based monthly contacts, and an Internet-based program (interactive technology, IT), to a self-directed control group, among overweight or obese individuals at high cardiovascular risk. This study describes implementation costs of both interventions as well as IT development costs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Resources were micro-costed in 2006 dollars from the primary perspective of a sponsoring healthcare system considering adopting an extant intervention, rather than developing its own. Costs were discounted at 3 percent annually. Length of trial participation was 30 months (randomization during February-November 2004). IT development costs were assessed over 36 months. Univariate and multivariate, including probabilistic, sensitivity analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total discounted IT development costs over 36 months were $839,949 ($2,414 per IT participant). Discounted 30-month implementation costs for 342 PC participants were $537,242 ($1,571 per participant), and for 348 IT participants, were $214,879 ($617 per participant). Under all plausible scenarios, PC implementation costs exceeded IT implementation costs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Costs of implementing and operating an Internet-based intervention for weight loss maintenance were substantially less than analogous costs of an intervention using standard phone and in-person contacts and are of a magnitude that would be attractive to many health systems, subject to demonstration of cost-effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon 97227, USA. richard.meenan@kpchr.org
authors.forename: Richard T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Meenan
authors.forename: Victor J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Funk
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bauck
authors.forename: Gerald J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Jerome
authors.forename: Lillian F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Appel
authors.forename: Jack F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Hollis
authors.forename: Phillip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Brantley
authors.forename: Laura P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Svetkey
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000191:economics*; D009042:Motivation; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013689:Telephone / Q000191:economics*; D015431:Weight Loss