Primary Care Research Network for the Treatment of Adolescent Obesity

Summary

The "Primary Care Research Network for the Treatment of Adolescent Obesity" will establish infrastructure within the primary care setting to support programmatic research on weight loss for underserved adolescents, primarily urban African Americans, rural Caucasians, and Latinos. Using primary care settings, to which many youths already have entry, may increase access for underserved adolescents to participate in obesity treatment and research. The primary project will be a 12 month randomized controlled study comparing the relative effectiveness of two interventions for weight reduction: Group Condition (a family based lifestyle modification program delivered by health care providers in 23 sessions); Self-Guided Condition (a family based lifestyle modification program that combines a self-guided, home-based approach with 6 sessions delivered by health care providers).

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Family-Based Lifestyle Modification

The Self-Guided condition will receive the same manual content and recommendations for eating and physical activity as the Group Condition. Since this approach is primarily home-based, participants in this condition will also receive additional tips and guidelines to assist the family in following the program at home. There will be 6 visits with the health coach at weeks 01, 04, 08, 24, 40, and 52. Participants will receive 2 phone calls from health coach at weeks 16 and 32. Parents and teens will be encouraged to hold weekly meetings at home to discuss program goals and progress.

BEHAVIORAL

Family-Based Lifestyle Modification Program

The Group condition will consist of a comprehensive family based lifestyle modification program of 23 visits (8 weekly, 8 bi-weekly, 7 monthly). Intervention visits include a combination of 17 group sessions and 6 individual meetings with health coach. There will be 7 phone calls two weeks after each monthly visit. Adolescents and their parents attend concurrent group meetings. The content of the sessions will include topics related to nutrition, physical activity, and behavior modification for weight management.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Pennsylvania Department of Health

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Geisinger Clinic

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Pennsylvania

  collaborator OTHER

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Robert I Berkowitz, MD · Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2006-07-31

Primary Completion

2010-05-31

Completion

2010-05-31