Peer-Led Healthy Lifestyle Program in Supportive Housing

Summary

This goal of this randomized controlled effectiveness trial is to compare the effectiveness of a peer-led health lifestyle intervention (Peer GLB) versus usual care services in supportive housing agencies in New York City and Philadelphia serving diverse clients with serious mental illness who are overweight or obese. The intervention follows the Group Lifestyle Balance curriculum derived from the Diabetes Prevention Program and that has been shown to help people achieve clinically significant weight loss (equal to or greater than 5% weight loss of initial weight). The intervention will be delivered by trained peer-specialists employed at the supportive housing agencies and supervised by the study team. Peer GLB is a 12-month group intervention that focuses helping people lose weight by improving people's diet and increasing their physical activity and consists of weekly core group sessions (3 mo.), bi-monthly transitional group sessions (3 mo.), and maintenance monthly sessions (6 mo.).

We plan to enroll 300 clients with serious mental illness who are overweight/obese (BMI equal to or greater than 25) from our two supportive housing agencies. Clients will be randomized to either the Peer-led healthy lifestyle intervention or usual care conditions. The primary outcome for this study is achieving clinically significant weight loss (equal to or greater than 5% weight loss from baseline weight) at 12 and 18 months post randomization. The secondary outcomes for this study include overall reductions in weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and improvements in physical activity, self-efficacy, recovery and health-related quality of life. Repeated assessments will be at baseline, 6, 12 and 18 month post randomization.

Primary Hypothesis: Peer GLB participants will have a higher proportion of persons achieving clinically significant weight loss (equal to or greater than 5% weight loss) at 12 and 18 months than UC participants.

Secondary Hypothesis: At 6, 12, and 18 months post-randomization, there will be significant reductions in average weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and significant improvements in physical activity, self-efficacy, recovery, and health-related quality of life in Peer GLB compared to UC.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Peer-Led Group Lifestyle Balance

The intervention follows the Group Lifestyle Balance curriculum derived from the Diabetes Prevention Program and The intervention will be delivered by trained peer-specialists employed at the supportive housing agencies and supervised by the study team. Peer GLB is a 12-month group intervention that focuses helping people lose weight by improving people's diet and increasing their physical activity and consists of weekly core group sessions (3 mo.), bi-monthly transitional group sessions (3 mo.), and maintenance monthly sessions (6 mo.).

BEHAVIORAL

Usual Care Services

The usual care condition encompasses the regular services offered at supportive housing agencies to help clients with their physical health and wellness.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Washington University School of Medicine

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Leopoldo J Cabassa, Ph. D. · Washington University School of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-07-31

Primary Completion

2018-02-28

Completion

2019-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations