My research focuses on leveraging digital therapeutics to improve improving obesity prevention and treatment in busy primary care settings serving patients with complicated medical histories. Traditional clinic-based approaches have struggled to deliver scalable, affordable, and efficacious treatment outcomes. My work addresses this gap by developing and testing technology-enabled interventions that are evidence-based, highly personalized, and designed for real-world clinical environments.

Across a series of randomized and pragmatic trials, I have demonstrated that fully automated and low-burden digital interventions can achieve high engagement and clinically meaningful outcomes in a range of high-risk patient populations. (Bennett et al., 2012; Steinberg et al., 2013; Bennett et al., 2018). This work also extends beyond weight loss to include evidence-based approaches to weight gain prevention for patients who are not interested in losing weight but remain at high cardiometabolic risk (Bennett et al., 2013). More broadly, my scholarship has contributed to the field’s understanding of how digital health tools can be leveraged to improve population health outcomes (Bennett & Glasgow, 2009; Bennett et al., 2014).

Advancing Obesity Treatment

The inability to reliably produce clinically meaningful weight loss among those with the highest risk of obesity and its associated health conditions. Over the past decade, our work has made important strides in addressing this gap. Most of these studies have been conducted in primary care settings, where the burden of obesity-related disease is greatest and resources are often constrained.

Across a series of randomized and pragmatic trials, we have demonstrated the feasibility of creating scalable, fully automated, and highly personalized intervention technologies. These approaches have achieved high levels of engagement and produced clinically meaningful outcomes.

• Bennett, G.G., Warner, E., Glasgow, R., Askew, S., Goldman, J., Ritzwoller, D., Emmons, K., Rosner, B., Colditz, G. (2012). Obesity treatment for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients in primary care practice. Archives of Internal Medicine, 172(7), 565–574. PMCID: PMC3609656
• Bennett, G.G., Foley, P.B., Levine, E., Whiteley, J., Askew, S., Steinberg, D., Batch, B., Greaney, M., Miranda, H., Wroth, T., Holder, M., Emmons, K.M., Puleo, E. (2013). Behavioral treatment for weight gain prevention among Black women in primary care practice: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(19), 1770–1777. PMCID: PMC3972760
• Steinberg, D.M., Levine, E.L., Askew, S., Foley, P., Bennett, G.G. (2013). Daily text messaging for weight control among racial and ethnic minority women. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(11), e244. PMCID: PMC3841371
• Bennett, G.G., Steinberg, D., Askew, S., Levine, E., Foley, P., Batch, B.C., Svetkey, L.P., Bosworth, H.B., Puleo, E.M., Brewer, A., DeVries, A., Miranda, H. (2018). Effectiveness of an App and provider counseling for obesity treatment in primary care. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 55(6), 777–786. PMID: 30361140

Building Evidence-Based Obesity Care in Primary Care Settings

Nationally, there are few low-cost, evidence-based obesity treatments available in primary care. Although provider-delivered lifestyle counseling can be effective, it occurs infrequently in routine practice. Structural barriers—including limited capacity and inadequate reimbursement—constrain the widespread availability of dietitian-led counseling services. As a result, uptake of evidence-based behavioral weight management interventions in primary care remains limited.

Despite the central role of primary care in obesity management, relatively few studies have examined the efficacy of behavioral weight management interventions in this setting. Through a series of efficacy and pragmatic effectiveness trials, we have demonstrated that primary care–based obesity treatments can be effective and scalable across a range of challenged care delivery environments.

• Bennett, G.G., Herring, S., Puleo, E., Stein, E.K., Emmons, K.M., Gillman, M.W. (2010). Web-based weight loss in primary care: a randomized controlled trial. Obesity, 18(2), 308–313. PMCID: PMC3710670
• Bennett, G.G., Steinberg, D.M., Pagoto, S.L. (2015). Will obesity treatment reimbursement benefit those at highest risk? American Journal of Medicine, 128(7), 670–671. PMID: 25697968

Expanding the Scope of Obesity Care Beyond Weight Loss

Comprehensive obesity care extends beyond weight loss alone. Up to half of patients with obesity report little or no interest in losing weight. For these individuals, clinical practice guidelines recommend a focus on preventing further weight gain. Until recently, evidence-based weight gain prevention interventions were largely unavailable in the primary care setting.

Our work provided the first evidence of efficacious weight gain prevention approaches designed specifically for primary care delivery.

• Bennett, G.G., Foley, P.B., Levine, E., Whiteley, J., Askew, S., Steinberg, D., Batch, B., Greaney, M., Miranda, H., Wroth, T., Holder, M., Emmons, K.M., Puleo, E. (2013). Behavioral treatment for weight gain prevention among Black women in primary care practice: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(19), 1770–1777. PMCID: PMC3972760
• Steinberg, D.M., Askew, S., Lanpher, M.G., Foley, P.B., Levine, E.L., Bennett, G.G. (2014). The effect of a “maintain, don’t gain” approach to weight management on depression among Black women. American Journal of Public Health, 104(9), 1766–1773. PMCID: PMC4151935