Borgatti, AlenaTang, ZitingTan, FeiSalvy, Sarah-JeanneDutton, Gareth2024-03-062024-03-062021Borgatti A, Tang Z, Tan F, Salvy SJ, Dutton G. Predicting program attendance and weight loss in obesity interventions: Do triggering events help?. J Health Psychol. 2021;26(11):2056-2061. doi:10.1177/1359105319887800https://hdl.handle.net/1805/39059Medical events that “trigger” motivation to lose weight may improve treatment outcomes compared to non-medical or no triggering events. However, previous findings include only long-term successful participants, not those initiating treatment. The current study compared those with medical triggering events or non-medical triggering events to no triggering events on attendance and weight loss during a weight management program. Medical-triggering-event participants lost 1.8 percent less weight (p = 0.03) than no-triggering-event participants. Non-medical-triggering-event participants attended 1.45 more sessions (p = 0.04) and were 1.83 times more likely to complete the program (p = 0.03) than no-triggering-event participants. These findings fail to support the benefit of medical triggering events when beginning treatment for obesity.en-USPublisher PolicyMedical eventMotivationObesityTreatmentWeight lossArticle