The Effect of Providing Genetic Risk Information on Lifestyle Behaviors in African Americans (LINKING GAINS)

September 21, 2026 updated by: Jennifer Caldwell, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major and persistent health disparity for African Americans. Linking GAINS is a randomized pilot and feasibility study designed to evaluate whether receiving genetic risk information early in a community-based CVD risk reduction intervention improves engagement and health behavior change. Sixty African American adults from the Baton Rouge metropolitan area will be recruited and randomized to a Genetically Unblinded (GU) group or a Genetically Blinded (GB) group. All participants will complete a 14-session behavioral intervention delivered over approximately 16 weeks, including culturally responsive education, nutrition and cooking sessions, physical activity training, group support, and community-based health resources. The GU group will receive genetic results and genetic counseling early in the intervention, while the GB group will receive genetic results and counseling after the behavioral intervention and end-of-study assessment. The primary endpoint is intervention engagement measured by attendance. Secondary outcomes include physical activity, dietary intake, body mass index, blood pressure, genomic orientation/knowledge, and perceived racism. Exploratory/moderator analyses will examine whether social determinants of health, including income, food insecurity, health literacy, occupational prestige, and experiences of racism, influence intervention engagement and behavior change.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

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
    • Louisiana
      • Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, 70808
        • Pennington Biomedical Research 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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18 years or older.
  • Self-identification as African American.
  • Willing to complete genetic testing using a saliva DNA collection kit.
  • Willing to participate in a CVD risk reduction behavioral intervention lasting approximately 16 weeks.
  • Able and willing to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Cannot safely engage in physical activity.
  • Has current knowledge of genetic contributions to CVD that would compromise the study comparison.
  • Pregnant at the time of eligibility assessment, because the study observes body weight and physiologic outcomes without pregnancy as a confounder.

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: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Genetically Unblinded

Genetically unblinded participants received their genetic test results from Color Genomics: Cancer, CVD, and Pharmacogenomics panels before starting the health behavior intervention. In addition, they received a 1:1 genetic counseling session prior to the health behavior intervention completion.
Genetic: Color Genomics Genetic Testing Panels

Participants gave a saliva sample to Color Genomics for an Ancestry, Hereditary Cancer, CVD, and Pharmacogenomics testing panel. Participants were able to get visuals of their results using their website and also discuss findings via zoom or phone call.
Experimental: Genetically Blinded

Genetically blinded participants received their genetic test results from Color Genomics: Cancer, CVD, and Pharmacogenomics panels. In addition, they received a 1:1 genetic counseling session after the health behavior intervention was completed.
Genetic: Color Genomics Genetic Testing Panels

Participants gave a saliva sample to Color Genomics for an Ancestry, Hereditary Cancer, CVD, and Pharmacogenomics testing panel. Participants were able to get visuals of their results using their website and also discuss findings via zoom or phone call.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Total number of participants that completed health behavior interventions.
Time Frame: 14-weeks

Measured by total health behavior sessions attended between groups.
14-weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Collaborators

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jennifer L. Caldwell, PhD, MPH, MS, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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)

September 22, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 26, 2026

Study Completion (Actual)

March 26, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 16, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 16, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 22, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 24, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 21, 2026

Last Verified

September 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PBRC 2024-043
  • P50MD017338 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified individual participant data (IPD) underlying the primary and secondary analyses reported in publications arising from the Linking GAINS study will be made available. Shared data may include participant demographic characteristics, intervention assignment, attendance and retention measures, genomic knowledge assessments, behavioral outcomes, clinical measures (e.g., blood pressure, body mass index), and de-identified genomic result classifications (e.g., positive/negative clinical findings). Personally identifiable information, dates, direct identifiers, genetic sequence data, and other information that could reasonably identify participants will not be shared.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

De-identified individual participant data and supporting documentation will become available following publication of the primary study results or within 12 months after study completion, whichever occurs first. Data will remain available for at least five years following publication.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Access to de-identified data will be available to qualified researchers whose proposed use is consistent with the informed consent provided by study participants and applicable institutional policies. Investigators must submit a research proposal, statistical analysis plan, and data use agreement for review and approval by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center study team. Only de-identified data necessary to address the approved research question will be shared. Data will be provided through a secure institutional data-sharing process in accordance with institutional and NIH data-sharing policies.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

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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