Weight Loss Program Effectiveness and Influencing Factors
Economic program evaluation literature has put increasing attention in evaluating weight loss programs’ effectiveness due to the popularity of weight loss preventions and interventions. Weight loss program effectiveness assessment is complex in both study design and analysis due to the human behavior complexity and econometric issues encountered. This session will explore different aspects of the evaluation challenges: financial incentive influence on program outcomes beyond effectiveness; endogeneity investigation; and program effects beyond simple prevalence head count statistic. The first paper utilizes a randomized control trial to investigate the effects of financial incentive in the form of subsidy on uptake, efficacy and effectiveness. The goal is to provide a more complete look at different aspect of program impacts. The second paper uses a national data to examine the education influence on obesity. The endogeneity problem of education is handled through instrumental variable approach and results are useful to inform potential targeted obesity interventions. The third paper transplants developmental economic poverty measures into weight loss outcome assessment and uses the severity measures to capture distributional changes brought by a worksite weight loss randomized control trial. The results provide useful insights into the treatment effect distribution shifts beyond the head count measure and average weight loss comparison. Generalized linear models are used to explore influencing factors on the severity reduction.