My Health Coach Study

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Health Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: health coaching

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02201069

HUM00087322

Details and patient eligibility

About

The "My Health Coach Study" seeks to determine if health coaching by a medical assistant can help patients have better sleep, a better diet, be more physically active or lose weight, according to the recommendation of their health care provider.

Full description

The aim of the study is to determine whether medical assistants (MAs) can assist primary care providers to achieve healthier lifestyles via better sleep, food choices, weight loss and/or increased physical activity in their patients. The hypothesis driving this research is that health coaching can be done by existing medical support staff to facilitate healthy lifestyles in a primary care setting. Coaching can maximize the health of the patient population in a cost-effective way if the coaching service is integrated into primary care clinics with minimal capital investment at the outset. A major focus will be on behaviors associated with weight management since this is the most common health issue in the U.S. today. This method, if successful, should be easily adaptable to other health behaviors and in most any medical practice that seeks to improve the health of its patient base in a cost-effective way.

In order to achieve a change in health behaviors, and especially weight loss, regular follow-up contacts are needed. Previous research has shown health coaching to be effective, but this has utilized programs that "add on" to the existing clinic structure. This type of coaching model is difficult to sustain. Utilizing existing staff for health coaching is a method we propose to more fully integrate this service into primary care clinics.

Enrollment: 82 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 100 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• adults age 21 and over
• referred by primary care physician for health coaching
• have telephone for follow-up
• English speaking

Exclusion criteria

• pregnant or trying to become pregnant

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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82 participants in 1 patient group

health coaching

Experimental group

Description:

12 weeks of health coaching using weekly contact in the first month and biweekly contacts in months 2-3.

Treatment:

Behavioral: health coaching