Veterans Walk for Health Study

Summary

The objective of this study is to determine whether a tailored web-based system for providing feedback on walking step-counts, in combination with regular nutrition counseling, can improve weight loss over nutrition counseling alone in patients with heart disease.

Conditions

• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Diabetes Mellitus
• Hyperlipidemia
• Hypertension
• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Nutritional counseling

The nutritional counseling is based on the six-session Medical Nutrition Therapy Protocol for Weight Management published by the American Dietetics Association. The categories include the following: a) Meal planning (food, hydration, fiber, alcohol), b) Food label reading, c) Recipe modification, d) Food preparation, e) Dining out and f) Physical activity.

BEHAVIORAL

Walking program

As part of the discussion of physical activity, participants in the control group will be encouraged to walk and dietitians will discuss goal setting using timed walks instead of total daily step-counts at each of the control group sessions. As a general guideline, participants will be encouraged to increase their daily walking target by 5-10 minutes (control group with time goals) or to increase their average daily step counts by 10-25% (pedometer group with step count goals) following each of the nutritional counseling sessions.

BEHAVIORAL

Nutritional counseling

The nutritional counseling is based on the six-session Medical Nutrition Therapy Protocol for Weight Management published by the American Dietetics Association. The categories include the following: a) Meal planning (food, hydration, fiber, alcohol), b) Food label reading, c) Recipe modification, d) Food preparation, e) Dining out and f) Physical activity.

BEHAVIORAL

Walking program

As part of the discussion of physical activity, participants in the control group will be encouraged to walk and dietitians will discuss goal setting using timed walks instead of total daily step-counts at each of the control group sessions. As a general guideline, participants will be encouraged to increase their daily walking target by 5-10 minutes (control group with time goals) or to increase their average daily step counts by 10-25% (pedometer group with step count goals) following each of the nutritional counseling sessions.

DEVICE

Simple pedometer

Device to be worn during waking hours to give an objective measure of steps taken each day.

BEHAVIORAL

Nutritional counseling

The nutritional counseling is based on the six-session Medical Nutrition Therapy Protocol for Weight Management published by the American Dietetics Association. The categories include the following: a) Meal planning (food, hydration, fiber, alcohol), b) Food label reading, c) Recipe modification, d) Food preparation, e) Dining out and f) Physical activity.

BEHAVIORAL

Walking program

As part of the discussion of physical activity, participants in the control group will be encouraged to walk and dietitians will discuss goal setting using timed walks instead of total daily step-counts at each of the control group sessions. As a general guideline, participants will be encouraged to increase their daily walking target by 5-10 minutes (control group with time goals) or to increase their average daily step counts by 10-25% (pedometer group with step count goals) following each of the nutritional counseling sessions.

DEVICE

Simple pedometer

Device to be worn during waking hours to give an objective measure of steps taken each day.

DEVICE

Enhanced pedometer

Simple pedometer with the addition of web-based feedback.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• US Department of Veterans Affairs

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Caroline R Richardson, MD · VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI

• Julie C Lowery, PhD MHSA · VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2005-07-31

Primary Completion

2007-11-30

Completion

2009-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations