Abstract

This document reports on evaluation work completed by the University of Lincoln through the School of Sport and Exercise Science. The evaluation research examined the data for patients who were referred for obesity by Lincolnshire Sport and Public Health Lincolnshire to Lincolnshire’s Exercise Referral (ER) Programme over a 12 month period.
The analysis was in response to questions that had been identified by Lincolnshire Sport and Public Health Lincolnshire. The questions considered BMI changes in relation to the following: Attendance over a 12 months period, age and gender, starting BMI category and reason for referral. Relevant data were accessed via Lincolnshire Sport’s parachute system and were analysed via calculation of descriptive statistics (i.e. percentages; means ± standard deviations). The data spanned a period of 3 years and included patients in the database who started a 12-week ER programme between 26th July 2010 through to 10th July 2013, and attended the first (week 1), second (week 12) and none or more of the following three visits (6, 9 and 12 months). There were 3745 eligible patients, of which 7.5% (281) had data for each of the 5 visits. The data is presented for all 3745 patients.The primary findings in relation to each question identified that there was a progressive decline in BMI from the initial measure at week 1 through to the 12 month assessment. Within every age group BMI reduced over 12 months, in comparison to the pre ER visit. This trend was also observed specifically for females however male BMI scores saw an increase from 6 months onwards returning to pre ER BMI values. A decrease in BMI was observed for all patients, regardless of BMI category, however the biggest decrease applied to those patients in the morbidly obese category (40+). A decrease in BMI was observed regardless of the reason for referral; however a greater decrease was seen for those patients referred for obesity.