The utility of a digital GLP-1 receptor agonist-supported weight-loss service in regional Australia: a qualitative analysis of interviews with current patients of the Eucalyptus program

Why regional Australians are turning to digital weight-loss care

New research published in the Australian Journal of Rural Health has examined how patients living in regional Australia experience the Eucalyptus digital weight-loss service (DWLS), and what role digital obesity care can play in addressing the chronic shortage of specialist services outside major cities.

Against a backdrop of alarming obesity rates and significant gaps in access to face-to-face care across regional and remote Australia, this study set out to understand the lived experiences of regional patients using the Eucalyptus DWLS,  including what drives them to it, what they value, and where the service falls short.

Regional Australians cited unmanageable travel times to face-to-face obesity services as a key reason for turning to digital care — underscoring the access gap that platforms like Eucalyptus are positioned to fill.

Understanding the results

What did the study find?

Thirty-two adults living with overweight or obesity who had been subscribed to the Eucalyptus DWLS for at least three weeks participated in phone-based interviews. Interviewers prompted discussion across six areas: reasons for subscribing, previous weight-loss attempts, views on the service's comprehensiveness, access to face-to-face alternatives, areas for improvement, and general satisfaction. A Braun and Clarke thematic analysis of all interview transcripts identified six key themes:

• Unmanageable travel times to face-to-face obesity services was a recurring theme, with participants describing the practical impossibility of accessing specialist obesity care in their local areas, making digital services not just convenient, but necessary.
• Frustration with previously attempted standalone lifestyle interventions was widely reported. Patients described repeated failed attempts with diet and exercise programs alone, and saw the medicated, multidisciplinary model of the Eucalyptus DWLS as meaningfully different from what they had tried before.
• Satisfaction with Eucalyptus care continuity emerged as a clear positive. Patients valued having consistent access to a care team throughout their program, contrasting this with the episodic, fragmented nature of traditional primary care.
• Early weight loss increases confidence and exercise motivation, a finding that highlights a positive feedback loop in the early stages of the program, with initial results driving greater engagement with the behavioural components of care.
• Aversion to or dissatisfaction with surgical interventions was a common reason for turning to a digital program, with many patients having previously explored or rejected bariatric surgery as an option.
• Inadequate app functionality was the most frequently cited concern, with participants, particularly those with lower digital literacy, describing challenges navigating the platform and calling for more intuitive design and advanced lifestyle tracking tools.

What this means for digital obesity care in regional Australia

This study provides some of the first qualitative evidence on how regional Australians experience GLP-1 RA-supported digital weight-loss care, and the findings point in two clear directions.

On one hand, comprehensive DWLSs like Eucalyptus have a genuine and significant role to play in increasing access to continuous obesity care for patients who would otherwise have few viable alternatives. For many regional participants, the service was not a convenience; it was the only realistic path to multidisciplinary support.

On the other hand, the findings highlight that digital platforms cannot simply be designed for metropolitan users and deployed nationally. To serve regional populations well, DWLSs need to make special provisions for users with lower literacy and integrate advanced lifestyle tracking tools, ensuring patients are engaging with the full breadth of the program, rather than using it primarily as a pathway to weight-loss medications.