The DNA-Based Lifestyle Enhancement Trial

Summary

Despite the known cardiovascular benefits of regular physical activity and having a balanced diet, it has proven challenging to change health behaviours towards favourable lifestyles. The overarching aim of the study is to test the effect of providing personalized genetic information along with diet and exercise plans on adherence to healthy lifestyle habits and cardio-metabolic risk. There is tremendous public interest in genetics and some evidence that providing genetic information can help improve health habits. However, no intervention to date has examined the effect of comprehensive genetic testing using cutting-edge polygenic score (PGS) prediction and an interactive health portal on health behaviours and cardio-metabolic risk. The investigators hypothesize that providing participants with detailed genetic information about genetic determinants of fitness and nutrition traits will help motivate people to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. The primary objective is to test the effect of providing genetic information and interactive recommendations for diet and exercise on adoption of healthy behaviours. The secondary objective is to evaluate the effects of the personalized health recommendations on cardio-metabolic risk markers, such as dyslipidemia, inflammatory markers, and fasting glucose.

Conditions

• Health Behavior
• Genetic Information
• Cardiovascular Risk Factor

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Personalized Health Recommendations

Includes 3-month gym membership, personalized exercise and meal plans, and genetic information related to health and wellness traits. The genetic information provided to study participants will consist of scores ranging from 0 to 100 based on the population percentile of the combined effects of many genetic variants, herein referred to as polygenic scores (PGS). PGS for approximately twenty traits related to health, fitness and nutrition will be provided to study participants. These traits are chosen for their relevance to healthy lifestyle habits (e.g. genetic predisposition to adiposity or muscle strength), entertainment value (e.g. preference for mornings) or both (e.g. bitterness taste perception, which while entertaining can also help guide vegetable choices).

BEHAVIORAL

Generic Health Recommendations

Includes 3-month gym membership and generic recommendations (Canada Food Guide / Health Canada Physical Activity guidelines)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• GeneBlueprint Corp

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario)

  collaborator OTHER

• GoodLife Fitness

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Southlake Regional Health Centre

  collaborator OTHER

• Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Guillaume Pare, MSc,MD,FRCPC · Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-03-07

Primary Completion

2018-12-30

Completion

2019-01-03

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations