Obesity, Weight Loss
Conditions
Keywords
Men's Health, weight loss, African American men, Latino men
Brief summary
If the investigators are to adequately address the health needs of African American and Latino men, both culture and gender must be considered when developing and implementing strategies to encourage weight loss and increase their healthy eating and physical activity.The aim of this project is to develop and test gendered, culturally and contextually relevant messages that will be used in a future, web- based tailored intervention to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in African American and Latino men. This study is part of a larger research agenda that for a decade has focused on understanding and reducing chronic disease risk among African American and Latino men. Because men are more likely than women to engage in over 30 behaviors known to increase their risk of injury, morbidity, and mortality, improving men's health requires understanding the social and cultural factors that help explain sex differences in health. Operationalizing gender in individually-tailored health communications has great potential to unlock the potential of health communications and interventions to engage and improve the health of men and particularly African American and Latino men. To date, no community-based intervention has produced clinically significant improvements in weight loss, healthy eating or physical activity in Latino and African American men. It also is unclear how technology can be used to promote these behaviors in this population. Thus, there is a need to develop healthy eating, physical activity and weight loss interventions specifically targeted and tailored to African American and Latino men that explores the utility of technology. This intervention content and focus represents a novel strategy to promote health equity by using technology-based health care innovations to improve healthy eating and active living by addressing a root cause of unhealthy behavior in men: notions of manhood. The investigators focus on gender and manhood because they are under-explored factors that shape men's health behaviors.
Detailed description
The overall aim of this study is to develop and pilot an individualized weight-loss intervention for obese middle-aged African American and Latino men and to explore how the genetically predicted BMI relates to outcomes. Using strategies previously employed by the PI to develop individually-tailored materials for African American men, the proposed study is designed to develop person-specific materials for Latino men (Specific Aim 1). Investigators also will pilot a behavioral weight loss intervention for 35-64 year old African American men in Nashville and Latino men in Miami (Specific Aims 2-3), and explore how the phenotypic expression of obesity shapes and is affected by behavioral and physiological changes (Specific Aim 4). The proposed intervention includes (a) person-specific goals/ messages (via web and text), (b) self-monitoring (via wearable device and text), (c) small group training and education (including social support) and (d) educational and community-based information and resources (via web and text).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALTailor Made: Solutions for your health (A su Medida: Soluciones para su salud)
Assess the effectiveness of a person-specific, randomized controlled pilot weight loss study of 80 African American and 40 Latino men; to compare changes in chronic disease risk behaviors (e.g., diet and physical activity), adiposity measures (e.g., body fat), and psychosocial mediators (e.g., social support, autonomous motivation) between data collected at baseline and at 3-months.
Sponsors
University of Miami
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Meharry Medical College
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Vanderbilt University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
MALE
Age
35 Years to 64 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Age: 35-64 at enrollment * Race/ ethnicity: African American/ Black or Latino/ Hispanic * BMI: 27-50 * Fluent in English (Nashville and Miami) or Spanish (Miami) * Provide informed consent * Weight less than 400 pounds
Exclusion criteria
* Preexisting condition that prohibits at least moderate physical activity * Serious medical condition that is likely to hinder accurate measurement of weight, for which weight loss is contraindicated or that would cause weight loss * Prior or planned bariatric surgery * Chronic use of medications that are likely to cause weight gain or cause weight loss * No cell phone or land-line phone * Participant in another obesity, eating or physical activity program or study * Psychiatric hospitalization or in-patient substance abuse treatment in the last 12 months
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in weight at 3-months post-baseline | 3-months post-baseline of participation | Investigators will report weight change in absolute terms from baseline. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Percent change in weight at 3-months post-baseline | 3-months post-baseline of participation | Investigators will report weight change as percent change from baseline. |
| Change in weight classification | 3-months post baseline of participation | Investigators will assess change in percentage of participants that regress from obese to overweight classification using BMI in kg/m\^2. |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in eating practices measured by the Food, Attitudes, and Behaviors Survey (FAB) | 3-months post baseline of participation | As measured by a modified version of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) 2007 Food Attitudes and Behaviors Survey, to measure the change in fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) during the past month. Responses will be converted into servings, as defined by the MyPyramid 1992 dietary guidelines. Total FVI was calculated as the sum of all items on the screener, excluding fried potatoes. |
| Change in physical activity measured by the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) | 3-months post baseline of participation | The GPAQ measures time spent in vigorous and moderate intensity physical activity. A higher score equates to more physical activity. The range is from 0 - 150 minutes per week. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed