Factors associated with choice of behavioural weight loss program by adults with obesity

Jamshidi-Naeini, Yasaman; Roberts, Susan B.; Dickinson, Stephanie; Owora, Arthur H.; Agley, Jon; Zoh, Roger S.; Chen, Xiwei; Allison, David B.

doi:10.1111/cob.12591

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 32 publications

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“…Indeed, that is the most common finding of such studies [ 92 , 93 ]. We have discussed in a previous paper [ 38 , 94 ] a number of studies that do not demonstrate an interaction between receiving one's preferred treatment and treatment assignment on weight loss outcome. By contrast, if one observes a statistically significant interaction between treatment preference and assigned treatment, then one can tentatively state (but not state that it has been proven, because of the non-randomized assignment to preference) that the effect of receiving treatment A versus treatment B is associated with whether one prefers treatment A or treatment B (presence of effect heterogeneity).…”

Section: Methods and Estimation Of Causal Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal models and causal modelling in obesity: foundations, methods and evidence

Zoh,

Yu,

Dawid

et al. 2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Discussing causes in science , if we are to do so in a way that is sensible, begins at the root. All too often, we jump to discussing specific postulated causes but do not first consider what we mean by, for example, causes of obesity or how we discern whether something is a cause. In this paper, we address what we mean by a cause, discuss what might and might not constitute a reasonable causal model in the abstract, speculate about what the causal structure of obesity might be like overall and the types of things we should be looking for, and finally, delve into methods for evaluating postulated causes and estimating causal effects. We offer the view that different meanings of the concept of causal factors in obesity research are regularly being conflated, leading to confusion, unclear thinking and sometimes nonsense. We emphasize the idea of different kinds of studies for evaluating various aspects of causal effects and discuss experimental methods, assumptions and evaluations. We use analogies from other areas of research to express the plausibility that only inelegant solutions will be truly informative. Finally, we offer comments on some specific postulated causal factors. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Causes of obesity: theories, conjectures and evidence (Part II)’.

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