Type 2 Diabetes Primary Prevention for At Risk Girls

July 13, 2026 updated by: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Purpose: To evaluate two approaches to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes in young girls.

The Need: We are experiencing an epidemic of childhood obesity. Rates of obesity have doubled to tripled in the past two decades, with the highest rates among poor and ethnic minority girls. Type 2 diabetes (what used to be called adult-onset diabetes) is now showing up in overweight children, and more children are manifesting precursors of heart disease and stroke.

Our Two Approaches:

  1. A state-of-the-art nutrition education program with monthly newsletters mailed to girls and their parents and quarterly evening lectures/educational events at school sites, including cooking demonstrations and games to improve nutrition and increase physical activity.
  2. After-school dance classes held five days per week all year long at school sites from the time school lets out until 6PM. Dance classes will include a 1-1.5 hour supervised homework study hall each day, and emphasize both traditional ethnic dances and popular dance.

Participants: Second, third and fourth grade girls and their families will be eligible to participate. All activities are free of charge. To be able to perform a valid evaluation, to be able to accommodate all girls at their own school, and to be fair about which girls receive which program, families who wish to participate will be randomly selected to participate in either one program or the other (nutrition education or dance classes). Each family will participate for two years.

Evaluation: Trained Stanford staff will perform all evaluation procedures with participating families in their own homes at the beginning and every six months. Families will be compensated for their participation.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304
        • Stanford University School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

7 years to 10 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Second-, third- and fourth-grade girls, aged 7-10 years of age enrolled in one of the participating schools will be eligible. Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible. However, girls will not be eligible to participate if they:

  • have been diagnosed with a chronic illness that affects their growth and/or weight (e.g., type 1 diabetes, hypothyroidism, inflammatory bowel disease)
  • are taking medications potentially affecting their growth and/or weight (e.g., methylphenidate HCl, systemic steroids)
  • have Asthma (not exclusionary alone) but have taken systemic steroids (oral, intravenous, or intramuscular) for a period of more than 21 days in the past year
  • have a condition that limits their participation in physical activity enough that they are not able to participate in Physical Education at school (e.g., significant structural heart disease)
  • are pregnant
  • are unable to complete the informed consent process.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Nutrition Education
A state-of-the-art nutrition education program with monthly newsletters mailed to girls and their parents and quarterly evening lectures/educational events at school sites, including cooking demonstrations and games to improve nutrition and increase physical activity.
Behavioral: Nutrition Education
Experimental: After-school dance class
After-school dance classes held five days per week all year long at school sites from the time school lets out until 6PM. Dance classes will include a 1-1.5 hour supervised homework study hall each day, and emphasize both traditional ethnic dances and popular dance.
Behavioral: After-school dance class

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Body Mass Index (BMI)
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in body mass index (BMI) over the 2-year intervention period. BMI was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.
24 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Waist Circumference
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in waist circumference measured in centimeters over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months
Change in Total Cholesterol
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in fasting serum total cholesterol level over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months
Change in LDL Cholesterol Level
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in fasting low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months
Change in HDL Cholesterol Level
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in fasting high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months
Change in Fasting Glucose
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in fasting serum glucose level over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months
Change in Fasting Insulin
Time Frame: 24 months
Change in fasting serum insulin level over the 24-month intervention period.
24 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Collaborators

Stanford University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Thomas N Robinson, MD, MPH, Stanford University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 1, 2003

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 2, 2003

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 2, 2003

First Posted (Estimated)

July 3, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 14, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 13, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • T2DPPG (completed)
  • R01DK062360 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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