Researchers Identify New Contagion: Weight Loss

The good news is that the most recently identified contagion is the kind of thing many people would like to catch: weight loss. It’s true. Researchers from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center have found that teammates in a team-based weight loss competition significantly influence each other’s weight loss. A Miriam Hospital news release reports that the scientists studied the results of the 2009 Shape Up Rhode Island (SURI) campaign, a 12-week statewide online weight loss competition in which there were three divisions: weight loss, physical activity and pedometer steps. The weight loss competition included 3,330 overweight or obese individuals (BMI of 31.2 or greater), representing 987 teams averaging between 5 and 11 members each. The majority of these individuals enrolled in all three divisions. The researchers found that weight loss outcomes were clearly determined by which team an individual was on. Those who lost clinically significant amounts of weight (at least 5 percent of their initial body weight) tended to be on the same teams, and being on a team with more teammates in the weight loss division was also associated with a greater weight loss. Those who reported higher levels of teammate social influence increased their odds of achieving a clinically significant weight loss by 20 percent. Read more from the Miriam Hospital.