Work

Estimating the cost-effectiveness of the National Weight Management Enhanced Service and NHS Digital Weight Management Programme in England: a modelling study

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Objectives To assess the long-term cost-effectiveness of the National Health Service (NHS) Digital Weight Management Programme. Design Administrative data analysis and modelled cost-effectiveness. Setting NHS in England. Participants A total of 31 753 participants (20 379 females and 11 374 males) completed the programme. Intervention In March 2021, NHS England initiated a National Enhanced Service incentive for General Practitioners (GPs) to refer patients with obesity plus diabetes and/or hypertension to a 12-week behavioural weight management intervention, the NHS Digital Weight Management. Primary and secondary outcomes Cost-effectiveness as cost/quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The PRIMEtime model (a population model) was used to estimate long-term impacts of this weight loss on QALYs, costs to the NHS and domiciliary social care over participants’ lifetimes, discounted at 3.5% for health and costs and cases of 20 non-communicable diseases over 30 years. Weight loss was estimated in 5-year age and sex groups for completing participants. Results Mean weight loss was 1.18 kg/m2 (95% CI 1.15 to 1.21) for males and 1.20 kg/m2 (1.18 to 1.22) for females. Over the lifetime, 0.0958 QALYs (0.0746–0.126) were saved per male and 0.110 (0.864–0.146) per female, with £65.0 (£31.8–111) and £170 (£112–248) costs to the NHS, respectively, and £50.9 (£20.7–72.0) and £229 (£172–300) to social care. Intervention costs were £133.49 per completer, giving a cost per QALY of £4202 (£3437–5064) from a health and social care perspective. Conclusions The programme was highly cost-effective to national standards, robust to probabilistic sensitivity analysis and a range of deterministic sensitivity analyses on weight regain, counterfactual weight loss and discount rates.

Source: BMJ Open

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2026-117143

Authors: Ben Amies-Cull, Stella Haffner, Peter Scarborough, Sarah Mounsey, Paul Aveyard, Susan Jebb