title: State of the art conference on weight management in VA: Policy and research recommendations for advancing behavioral interventions.
abstract: This article summarizes outcomes of the behavioral interventions work group for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) State of the Art Conference (SOTA) for Weight Management. Sixteen VHA and non-VHA subject matter experts, representing clinical care delivery, research, and policy arenas, participated. The work group reviewed current evidence of efficacy, effectiveness, and implementation of behavioral interventions for weight management, participated in phone- and online-based consensus processes, generated key questions to address gaps, and attended an in-person conference in March 2016. The work group agreed that there is strong evidence for efficacy and effectiveness of core behavioral intervention components and processes, but insufficient evidence to determine the comparative effectiveness of multiple clinician-delivered weight management modalities, as well as technologies that may or may not supplement clinician-delivered treatments. Effective strategies for implementation of weight management services in VHA were identified. The SOTA work group's foremost policy recommendations are to establish a system-wide culture for weight management and to identify a population-level health metric to measure the impact of weight management interventions that can be tracked and clearly communicated throughout VHA. The work group's top research recommendation is to determine how to deploy and scale the most effective behavioral weight management interventions for Veterans.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. robin.masheb@yale.edu.|VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Ave Psychology Service, 116B, West Haven, CT, 06516, USA. robin.masheb@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Robin M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Masheb
authors.affiliation: VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Susan D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Raffa
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ackermann
authors.affiliation: VA Ann Arbor Center for Clinical Management Research, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Damschroder
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Estabrooks
authors.affiliation: Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Evans-Hudnall
authors.affiliation: VA Office of Connected Care, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Neil C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Trina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Histon
authors.affiliation: VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Tacoma, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Alyson J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Littman
authors.affiliation: VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Tannaz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Moin
authors.affiliation: VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, Tacoma, WA, USA.|University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Karin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pagoto
authors.affiliation: HealthPartners Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Nico P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Pronk
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Tate
authors.affiliation: VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Goldstein
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000628:therapy*; D000073319:Obesity Management / Q000379:methods*; D014728:Veterans; D015431:Weight Loss
keywords: obesity; overweight; veterans; weight loss; weight management