Cell Phone Intervention in Young Adults (CITY)

November 1, 2017 updated by: Duke University
Weight gain accelerates during early adulthood, and leads to the health consequences of obesity (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc). Most weight loss studies enroll middle-aged adults. This study tests the hypothesis that a weight loss intervention that builds on prior research evidence but is enhanced with technological innovations will lead to weight loss in a diverse group of overweight and obese adults aged 18-35 years. The technology intervention, using cell phone applications, will be compared to an "advice only" control group and to a group receiving a more traditional personal coaching intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Trials in middle aged adults indicate that weight loss can be achieved and sustained with frequent contact over a long period of time, frequent self-monitoring, social support and motivational counseling. However, it is unclear whether this strategy would work in younger adults. Based on life stage, cultural context, environmental circumstances, and marketing pressures, behavioral intervention may need to be substantially modified to be effective in young adults. Even more adaptation will be required for intervention to be effective in young adults from racial/ethnic minority groups. The proposed intervention builds on prior evidence with innovations directed at increasing effectiveness in young adults.

Using cell phones to deliver a weight control intervention in this age group has the potential to be engaging, enjoyable, practical, cost-effective, sustainable, and broadly disseminated. We propose a trial in which a highly innovative but more risky intervention based almost entirely on use of cell phone technology and a second more incremental innovation over traditional behavioral intervention are each compared to a usual care control group. We will recruit a diverse target population of overweight/obese, generally healthy young adults, comprising approximately 35% non-Latino Whites, 35% non-Latino Blacks, and 30% Latinos, to be randomized to: 1) Usual care control: Educational materials and information but no behavioral intervention; 2) Cell-phone intervention: similar education and knowledge as the control group, but thereafter a behavioral intervention will be delivered almost exclusively via cell phone, particularly using the self-monitoring and social networking features of this technology; 3) Personal contact with cell-phone enhancement: personal contact intervention enhanced by cell-phone for self-monitoring.

The post-randomization intervention period will last 24 months. The primary outcome is change in weight 12 months post-randomization; an important secondary outcome is weight change at 24 months.

The formative phase will focus largely on technology/intervention development.

To assess maintenance of weight loss, after completion of the primary outcome assessment (24 months post-randomization), participants in the control group are followed observationally; those in the cell-phone and personal coaching interventions are re-randomized to either continue intervention or stop intervention with observational follow-up. All participants who agree to participate in this maintenance phase are followed for an additional 2-3 years with data collection every 6-12 months.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

365

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
    • North Carolina
      • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27710
        • Duke University Medical Center

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

18 years to 35 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18-35 years;
  • BMI >=25;
  • Using a cellphone.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Diabetes mellitus;
  • Pregnant or nursing;
  • Use of weight loss medications, systemic steroids, antipsychotics, or diabetes medication;
  • Prior weight loss surgery;
  • Cardiovascular (CVD) event in past 6 months;
  • Current malignancy.

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Cell phone intervention
Behavioral lifestyle intervention for weight loss, delivered by cell phone.
Behavioral: Behavioral weight loss intervention
Behavioral lifestyle intervention for weight loss, compared to advice-only control.
Experimental: Personal counseling intervention
Behavioral lifestyle intervention for weight loss, delivered by personal counseling.
Behavioral: Behavioral weight loss intervention
Behavioral lifestyle intervention for weight loss, compared to advice-only control.
No Intervention: Advice only
Advice only control group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change in Body Weight
Time Frame: Baseline and 24 months
Baseline and 24 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Duke University

Collaborators

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Laura P Svetkey, MD, Duke 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

November 1, 2010

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 23, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

March 24, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 13, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 1, 2017

Last Verified

November 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00024782
  • 1U01HL096720 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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