Mobile Methods for Reducing Obesity Risk in Parents and Children (PATH)

Mobile Methods for Reducing Obesity Risk in Parents and Children: A Randomized Trial

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of an innovative 6-month smartphone-delivered intervention using simplified monitoring of dietary intake compared to a smartphone-delivered intervention with standard calorie monitoring among parents with overweight or obesity.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Detailed Description

This is a 6-month randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of two smartphone-based dietary and weight change interventions among 70 parent-child dyads with at least one child between the ages of 2 and 12 (70 adults and 70 children ages 2-12). One intervention group (Simple) will use a simplified, low-burden form of dietary tracking in the study smartphone application and the other group (Standard) will use standard calorie tracking. Components of both interventions include (1) setting personalized goals for weight, dietary intake, and daily activity (2) adaptive text message interventions based on behavior change techniques such as goal setting and in-the-moment progress feedback several times per week, (3) weekly tailored feedback updated in the study smartphone app, and (4) weekly lessons on the smartphone app. The primary objective is to promote weight loss in the parents, and the secondary objective is to determine if one or both interventions produce a ripple effect of parent dietary change onto dietary changes in the child.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

144

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

    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
        • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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

2 years to 55 years (ADULT, CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria (parent):

  • Currently age 21-55.
  • Body mass index (BMI) of 25-50 kg/m².
  • Have one child between the ages of 2-12.
  • Own an iPhone running at least iOS11 with a data and text messaging plan.
  • Have the ability to read, write, and speak English.

Inclusion Criteria (child):

  • Currently age 2-12.

Exclusion Criteria (parent):

  • Lost more than 10 pounds in the last 6 months.
  • Currently participating in another nutrition or weight loss program.
  • Currently meeting exercise recommendations of 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
  • Currently pregnant or breastfeeding, pregnant within the past 6 months, or planning to become pregnant within the next 6 months.
  • Planning to relocate in the next 8 months.
  • Will be out of town for 2 weeks or more in the next 8 months.
  • Cannot attend two visits at the UNC Weight Research Program clinic.
  • Pre-existing medical condition(s) that preclude adherence to an unsupervised exercise program, as determined by items endorsed on the PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire).
  • Treatment of diabetes with insulin or oral medications that may cause hypoglycemia.
  • History of clinically diagnosed eating disorder.
  • Diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
  • Hospitalization for a psychiatric diagnosis within the last year.
  • Report a past diagnosis of or current symptoms of alcohol or substance dependence.
  • Another member of the household (family member or roommate) is a participant or staff member in this study.

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
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Simple
This arm uses a simplified form of dietary tracking that involves tracking only high-calorie, high-fat foods, in addition to the core behavioral smartphone-delivered intervention that consists of weighing, physical activity, goal setting, adaptive text messages, tailored weekly feedback, and lessons.
Participants have three daily goals (weighing, dietary goal, activity goal), will self-monitor (weigh on Wi-Fi enabled scale, use a simplified form of tracking only high-calorie, high-fat foods in the study smartphone app, wear Fitbit activity tracker), will receive 4-5 tailored text messages each week, and will view weekly tailored feedback and lessons in smartphone app.
EXPERIMENTAL: Standard
This arm uses standard calorie tracking, in addition to the core behavioral smartphone-delivered intervention that consists of weighing, physical activity, goal setting, adaptive text messages, tailored weekly feedback, and lessons.
Participants have three daily goals (weighing, dietary goal, activity goal), will self-monitor (weigh on Wi-Fi enabled scale, track calorie intake, wear Fitbit activity tracker), will receive 4-5 tailored text messages each week, and will view weekly tailored feedback and lessons in smartphone app.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent weight loss: objective
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 Months
Weight change from baseline to 6 months calculated as a percent from baseline weight.
Baseline, 6 Months
Weight
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 Months
Absolute weight change from baseline to 6 months.
Baseline, 6 Months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Dietary tracking adherence
Time Frame: from Baseline to 6 Months
Number of days of complete dietary tracking summed over the 6-month study period.
from Baseline to 6 Months
Parent diet
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 Months
Change in parent daily caloric intake as measured by 24-hour dietary recall from baseline to 6 months.
Baseline, 6 Months
Child diet
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 Months
Change in child daily caloric intake as measured by 24-hour dietary recall from baseline to 6 months.
Baseline, 6 Months
Percent weight loss: WiFi scale
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Weight change calculated as a percent from baseline weight (measured in kg), using official assessment weights taken from participants' study-provided WiFi-enabled weighing scale and transmitted via WiFi, from baseline to 3, and 6 months.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Child BMI-percentile
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 Months
Change in child BMI-percentile using at-home measurements of child's weight (on parent WiFi-enabled scale) and height
Baseline, 6 Months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as measured by the Paffenbarger Physical Activity Questionnaire, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. The PPAQ is a self-administered questionnaire that asks for a recall of physical activity over the previous 1 week. Participants report how many days and for how many minutes each day they engage in brisk walking, and report other exercise activities that week (non-occupational and non-household-related), including how many days and for how many minutes each time. Activities are assigned MET values according to the Compendium of Physical Activities, when are then used to classify activities as light moderate, or vigorous, and are also assigned energy expenditure amounts in kcal. These values are used to calculate total energy expenditure in kcal/week, as well as energy expenditure from and total minutes engaged in moderate-to-vigorous activities, measured in kcal/week and minutes/week, respectively.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Sedentary behavior
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in sedentary behavior as measured by the self-administered Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire for Adults (SBQ), from baseline to 3, and 6 months. The SBQ asks about amount of sitting time on weekdays (8 items) and weekends (8 items), and are scored by summing up the total time spent in sedentary time (in hours) on weekdays and weekends, ranging from 0 hours to 6+ hours per day.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Physical food environment
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in healthy and unhealthy foods offered in the home as measured by a physical food environment self-report questionnaire, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. There are 80 total items, 32 unhealthy items and 48 healthy items. Participants report whether each food/drink item is in the home or not (yes or no), and the items are summed for an unhealthy total and healthy total, and may also be used to total number of sugar-sweetened beverages/juice (out of 8 items), caloric beverages (15 items), fruits (17 items), vegetables (14 items), high-fat high-calorie items (20 items), and low-fat low-calorie items (14 items). Higher numbers indicate greater amounts of those types of food in the home.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Social food environment
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in social food environment as measured by the Meals in our Household Questionnaire, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. This consists of 50 items across 6 subscales, summed to create a total score for each: structure of family meals (10 items, score range 0-40), problematic child mealtime behaviors (20 items, range 0-70), use of food as a reward (6 items, range 0-24), parental concern about child's diet (17 items, range 0-85), spousal stress related to child's mealtime behaviors (4 items, score range 4-20), and influence of child's food preferences on what other family members eat (3 items, range 2-14). Higher scores indicate higher instances of use of the scale in question (ex: greater structure of family meals, greater use of food as a reward, etc.).
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Household food rules
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in household food rules as measured by 12 items from the self-report Active Where Parent-Child Survey, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. The 12 items are summed to create a total score that ranges from 0-12, where higher scores indicate a greater number of food rules used.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Weight control self-efficacy
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in weight control self-efficacy using the 20-item self-report Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. Items are rated on a scale of 0-9, and summed for a total score ranging from 0-180, with higher scores indicated greater self-efficacy.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Self-efficacy for exercise
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in self-efficacy for exercise, as measured by the self-reported Self-Efficacy and Exercise Habits Survey, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. Responses for two subscales (Sticking to it - 8 items, Making time for exercise - 4 items) are averaged to yield a score from 1 to 5, with higher values representing higher self-efficacy for exercise.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Self-regulation
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in self-regulation as measured by the 26-item self-report Eating Behavior Inventory, from baseline to 3, and 6 months. Scores range from 26-130, with higher scores indicating more use of positive eating behaviors.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Depressive symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in depressive symptoms, as measured by the self-report 20-tem Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), from baseline to 3, and 6 months. Scores range from 0-60, with higher scores indicating more depressive symptoms.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Stress
Time Frame: Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months
Change in stress, as measured by the self-report 10-item Perceived Stress scale, from baseline to 3 and 6 months. Scores range from 0-40, with higher scores indicating greater stress.
Baseline, 3 Months, 6 Months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brooke Nezami, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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)

August 14, 2019

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

May 6, 2020

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

May 21, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 3, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 3, 2019

First Posted (ACTUAL)

June 4, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

June 16, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 15, 2020

Last Verified

June 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 17-3027

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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.

Clinical Trials on Obesity

Clinical Trials on Simple

3
Subscribe