Cooking Classes as a Family-based Intervention for Weight Reduction: Effects on Dietary Quality and Weight Management in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

July 17, 2026 updated by: Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi

The goal of this quasi-experimental interventional study is to learn if healthy cooking classes for home cooks can improve weight management and dietary quality among Emirati adults with overweight or obesity living in Abu Dhabi. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does participation in the culinary medicine program reduce body weight over time?
  • Does the intervention improve diet quality and increase compliance with healthy home-cooked meals?
  • Does the intervention improve health measures such as waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and heart rate?
  • What are the experiences and satisfaction levels of participating family members and trained home cooks?

Participants will:

  • Enroll in a 3-month family-based nutrition intervention program
  • Receive meals prepared by home cooks trained in culinary medicine through the ICCA program
  • Complete assessments before the intervention, during the intervention, and 3 months after completion
  • Undergo measurements including weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and heart rate
  • Complete questionnaires about diet quality, meal habits, and overall program experience

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

250

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

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

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Emirati
  • Based in Abu Dhabi
  • Home cooked meals prepared by full-time home cooks who are certified in the ICCA Culinary Medicine course (post 4 weeks cooking training)
  • Certified home cooks are residing with participant during the training and intervention
  • Aged between 18 years and 60 years
  • BMI between 28-40 kg/m2
  • Participant and cooks being able to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Body weight exceeding 220 kilograms at the time of recruitment
  • Undergoing treatment for serious illnesses (active cancer), planned for surgery, interventional management, and immunomodulation
  • Undergone surgery within 3 months prior to study recruitment, including bariatric surgery
  • Enrolled in other lifestyle intervention programs

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Culinary Medicine Intervention Group
Participants receive a household-based culinary medicine intervention. The designated home cook undergoes a 4-week ICCA culinary medicine training program focused on healthy cooking techniques, nutrition education, and chronic disease prevention. Following training, the home cook implements healthy home-prepared meals for participating household members over a 3-month period. Participants receive repeated assessments of weight, anthropometric measures, blood pressure, heart rate, body composition, and diet quality at baseline, mid-intervention (6 weeks), and post-intervention (3 months).
Behavioral: Culinary Medicine Healthy Cooking and Home Meal Implementation Program
This intervention consists of a 4-week structured culinary medicine training program delivered by ICCA to designated household home cooks. The training includes theoretical nutrition education and practical cooking sessions focused on healthy meal preparation techniques aimed at reducing chronic disease risk. Following completion of training and certification, home cooks implement these techniques over a 3-month period by preparing and providing healthy home-cooked meals for participating household members. The intervention encourages reduced reliance on ultra-processed and restaurant foods and promotes improved dietary quality, with outcomes assessed through repeated measures of anthropometry, body composition, cardiovascular indicators, and dietary intake.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Weight Status (Body Weight)
Time Frame: Baseline (immediately after home cook certification and before intervention), Mid-intervention (6 weeks), and Post-intervention (3 months after intervention start).
Assessment of participant weight to determine changes associated with the culinary medicine intervention. Weight will be measured using the InBody Dial H30 portable device.
Baseline (immediately after home cook certification and before intervention), Mid-intervention (6 weeks), and Post-intervention (3 months after intervention start).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Waist Circumference
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Measurement of abdominal adiposity using a smart tape according to WHO protocol.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Body Fat Percentage
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Measurement of body fat percentage using the InBody Dial H30 portable device.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Blood Pressure
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured using a Welch Allyn ProBP 2000 device after a standardized resting period.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Heart Rate
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Resting heart rate measured using the Welch Allyn ProBP 2000 device.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Compliance with Home-Cooked Meal Consumption
Time Frame: Every week for 3 months
Survey-based assessment of participant adherence to consuming meals prepared by the trained home cook
Every week for 3 months
Frequency of home-cooked meal consumption.
Time Frame: every week for 3 months
Number of home-cooked meals consumed per week, assessed by participant survey.
every week for 3 months
Participant Experience and Satisfaction
Time Frame: End of intervention (3 months).
Survey evaluating participants' overall experience, satisfaction, acceptability, and perceived benefits of the culinary medicine program.
End of intervention (3 months).

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Handgrip Strength
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Measurement of muscle strength using a calibrated Jamar digital hand dynamometer. Highest value from repeated trials will be recorded.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
BMI calculated using measurements obtained from the InBody Dial H30 and height from the SECA stadiometer. Although weight is the primary outcome, BMI is also collected and may be analyzed.
Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.
Medication Use
Time Frame: Baseline and Post-intervention (3 months).
Documentation of medication type and dose, including diabetes, hypertension, and weight-loss medications, to account for potential confounding effects.
Baseline and Post-intervention (3 months).
Diet Quality Score
Time Frame: Pre-intervention (during recruitment/consent) and Post-intervention (end of 3-month intervention).

Assessment of dietary quality using the Global Diet Quality Questionnaire (GDQS), including overall score and NCD-Risk/NCD-Protect indicators. The following summarizes the scoring system of the GDQS:

Score Range Interpretation

- GDS (Global Diet Score / GDR Score): (0-18) Overall diet quality score combining protective and risk components. Higher scores indicate better adherence to global dietary recommendations.

NCD-Protect: (0-9) Measures consumption of foods that protect against non-communicable diseases (e.g., fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pulses, nuts, seeds). Higher scores are better.

NCD-Risk: (0-9) Measures consumption of foods associated with increased NCD risk (e.g., processed meat, sugary foods and beverages, ultra-processed salty foods). Higher scores indicate greater dietary risk.
Pre-intervention (during recruitment/consent) and Post-intervention (end of 3-month intervention).

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi

Collaborators

Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre

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)

October 8, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 11, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 30, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 20, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • DOH/ADHRTC/2025/1895

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

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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