Why people seek obesity care through digital rather than in-person services

What are the common reasons patients prefer digital over face-face?

A multinational study published in Cureus has uncovered the key reasons why patients are choosing digital weight loss services (DWLSs) over traditional face-to-face (F2F) care when looking for medical help to lose weight. This is a world first study to quantitatively assess patient reasons for subscribing to a real-world, medicated DWLS. The results show that perceived stigma, flexibility and access remain the common reasons for choosing digital platforms.

Patient discomfort in discussing their weight in F2F consultations (perceived stigma) was the most common reason (43.41%) for subscribing to the Eucalyptus DWLS instead of F2F alternatives.

Understanding the results

The study surveyed 1,283 patients who subscribed to Eucalyptus’ digital services like Juniper across three countries: Australia, the UK, and Germany. Respondents were asked to select reason(s) for choosing Eucalyptus over F2F care. Factors such as demographic characteristics and regular GP status (whether a patient had one or not) were also analysed to identify trends.

The study demonstrated that comprehensive DWLSs like Eucalyptus can help address several barriers to traditional obesity care:

• The most common reason that participants subscribed to Eucalyptus (selected by 43.41% of the sample, and over 40% of patients in each national cohort) was personal discomfort discussing weight loss goals in face-to-face settings. This discomfort was consistently reported across all three countries studied and was particularly prevalent among non-Caucasian patients and those with a higher BMI.
• Flexibility also emerged as a key factor, with over a third of respondents (34.37%) highlighting the convenience of digital platforms. These services allow patients to access care at times that suit their schedules, making them particularly appealing to individuals with busy lifestyles or multiple commitments. This discovery is consistent with other literature on the temporal benefits of digital modalities in chronic care settings and evidences the difficulty of juggling multiple medical consultations with  work and family commitments.
• Nearly one third of respondents (33.90%) pointed to the inaccessibility of comprehensive obesity care through their local GPs or F2F clinics. This finding underscores a significant gap in traditional healthcare models, where multidisciplinary obesity management is often unavailable or difficult to access for many patients.

Significance of the research

Together, these findings demonstrate that DWLSs from Eucalyptus’ digital clinics like Juniper are uniquely positioned to address some of the barriers to obesity care in F2F settings, including perceived stigma, inflexibility, and gaps in service availability.

These results emphasise the need for well-designed DWLSs to balance accessibility with a focus on sustained lifestyle interventions to ensure patients are adequately supported, and have safe access to necessary treatment.