Obesity Intervention Improves Outcomes in Socially Isolated Older Adults: Progress Despite a Pandemic

The extended social isolation necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have a prolonged negative impact on the health of community-dwelling older adults. We studied the potential to counteract these negative effects, examining the before and after measurements of participants in two obesity intervention studies that were converted from in-person to remote delivery, due to COVID-19. The Veterans Achieving Weight Loss and Optimizing Resilience-Using Protein study (VALOR-UP; n=9) and the Egg-Supplemented Pre-Diabetes Intervention Trial (EGGSPDITE; n=6) enrolled obese (BMI = 34.2±3.8 kg/m2) older adults (age = 71.5±4.5 yrs; 80% male; 47% black) with prediabetes (fasting blood glucose 100-125 mg/dL and/or HbA1c of 5.7-6.4%). Participants followed a hypocaloric diet, attended weekly support groups, and weighed themselves weekly; VALOR-UP participants also attended a weekly exercise class delivered remotely. Outcomes were assessed at baseline (pre-COVID) and the end of a 4-month period coinciding with stay-at-home orders. Between baseline and 4 months, calorie intakes (3-day diet record) decreased by 402.1±529.3 kcal/day (p