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121 active trials for Weight Loss

Healthy Frio: A Rural Community Partnership to Advance Latino Obesity Research

Much has been learned about the efficacy and effectiveness of comprehensive healthy lifestyle interventions to reduce obesity. Few studies have been translated into rural settings or among Latinos. Y Living is an evidence-based family-focused intervention (FI) designed for urban Latino families. The FI is a 12-week behavioral modification program grounded in social cognitive theory, designed to engage the whole family in lifestyle changes by developing knowledge and skills in physical activity and healthy eating, building skills in goal-setting and self-monitoring, and creating a supportive home environment. Researchers will engage community partners in formative research to adapt the current FI for rural Latino families. Two parallel delivery methods of the FI will be developed and tested: 1) in-person group setting at a community center (FI-IP) and 2) home-based delivered remotely with technology (FI-RT). Both will be designed to address the unique social, cultural and environmental factors facing rural Latino families. The FI-RT will take advantage of innovative modern technology and e-Learning to increase program availability, accessibility and participation in rural settings. Researchers will conduct a 3-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare effectiveness of the two delivery approaches on weight loss (primary outcome) and energy balance behaviors (secondary outcomes) among obese Latino parent-child pairs versus control. The researchers will recruit 270 obese Latino adults (ages 21-65) with a child (ages 8-17) from three primary care practices in rural South Texas. These parent-child pairs will be randomized to one of three arms stratified by clinic: 1) FI-IP (n=90); 2) FI-RT (n=90); or 3) control group (n=90). Primary specific aims are to: 1) Conduct community-engaged formative studies to transform the existing FI into two unique delivery methods (FI-IP and FI-RT) for use in a subsequent RCT in a rural Latino community; and 2) Conduct a RCT to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of FI-IP and FI-RT to address weight loss (primary outcome) and energy balance behaviors (secondary outcomes) among obese rural Latino adults compared with adult participants in control group at immediate post intervention (3 months), after a 3-month maintenance program (6 months post randomization) and a 6-month follow-up (12 months post randomization). A secondary aim is to examine the impact of FI-IP and FI-RT children's weight and energy balance behaviors.

Start: November 2017
Teen Weight Control

The prevalence of obesity in adolescents is remarkably high, with 38.7% of youth 12-15 years of age and 41.5% of 16-19 year olds meeting criteria for overweight or obesity. Behavioral weight control interventions for adolescents have had limited impact on this field and there is considerably more that needs to be done. Notably, adolescents who have difficulty managing their feelings have been found to consume higher caloric foods and report greater amounts of sedentary time. Poor emotion management among adolescents has also been associated with more rapid weight gain and higher BMI. Data from adolescents with overweight/obesity attending our outpatient weight management program (N=124) indicate that 82% of these youth report emotion regulation scores that are comparable to youth with significant mental health problems. Despite documented relationships between adolescent weight control and emotion regulation, no proven adolescent weight management programs targeting emotion regulation exist. To fill this gap, our laboratory developed and piloted an adolescent weight control intervention (HealthTRAC) that combines two previously tested effective interventions, one targeting emotion regulation skill building, the other focused on behavioral weight control. Findings from our small pilot trial are promising and indicate that the newly created HealthTRAC intervention is acceptable to parents and teens, easy to deliver, and leads to modest weight loss and improved emotion management skills compared to a standard behavioral weight control (SBWC) program. These data suggest that emotion regulation is related to weight management and may assist adolescents with overweight/obesity who are seeking to lose weight. The current multi-site study builds on this previous work and will examine the impact of the developed HealthTRAC intervention on improving emotion regulation skills and reducing adolescent BMI in a larger sample with longer term follow-up (18 months after starting the intervention). Adolescents will receive 27.5 hours of intervention time over a 12- month period. We expect that adolescents enrolled in the HealthTRAC intervention will show greater reduction in BMI over the 12-month program and will sustain these losses up to 18 months after starting the intervention compared to teens enrolled in SBWC. The information learned from this project will help us better understand how helping adolescents manage their emotions can improve weight loss outcomes.

Start: May 2021
Bariatric Embolization of Arteries With Imaging Visible Embolics (BEATLES)

Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) ?30 kg/m2 and with a subclass of obesity known as morbid or severe obesity (BMI of ?40 kg/m2). These are major issues in medicine for both participants and medical providers with >36% of the US population affected. Obesity is one of the biggest causes of preventable chronic diseases and healthcare costs in the USA. Obese adults spend 42% more on direct healthcare costs and morbidly obese adults overall have 81% higher healthcare costs than non-obese adults. Obesity is currently treated with dietary, pharmacological, and/or surgical approaches that are often unsuccessful or are associated with additional risks. As the incidence and prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases are steadily increasing, there is a growing need to detect the key risk factors involved in disease development and modify standard treatment procedures and protocols. The most successful long-term strategy continues to be bariatric and metabolic surgeries, such as sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP). The NIH recommends bariatric surgery for participants with a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or greater or a BMI of 35 kg/m2 or greater and obesity related comorbidities. These surgeries enable participants to lose between 50% and 75% of excess body weight. Despite this success, participants are apprehensive and do not undergo bariatric surgery with the biggest fear being the many complications that come with the procedure. Studies have shown that 57-77% of participants are not interested in bariatric surgery although the participants qualify.(16) With the concern of complications from bariatric surgery, interest in endoscopic bariatric techniques has increased over the years. The techniques have been shown to be efficacious, reversible, relatively safe, and cost effective. Further, these techniques offer a therapeutic window for some participants who may otherwise be unable to undergo bariatric surgery. The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy have approved endoscopic procedures, such as balloon therapy, for participants with BMI in the 30-40 kg/m2 range.(17,18) However, the products used in these therapies also have several limitations primarily the inability to provide long term weight loss given the temporary nature of these balloons.(19) Common adverse events following intragastric balloon insertion include abdominal pain (33.7%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (18.3%), anorexia, and nausea (29%). Severe complications such as gastric ulcers (2%), small bowel obstruction (0.3%), perforation (0.1%), balloon migration (1.4%), and death (0.08%) are less common. Early balloon removal occurred in 9.1% of the study participants due to participant intolerance.(20) In a pilot study to assess safety and efficacy (BEAT Obesity), 20 morbidly obese participants with a BMI of ?40 kg/m2 with no other comorbid conditions underwent bariatric embolization and were followed for 12 months. Participants were embolized with 300-500 µm Embospheres. None of the 20 participants in the BEAT Obesity trial (the largest prospective trial to date) had any major adverse events. Any gastric ulcers that occurred (40%) were asymptomatic and were completely healed by three months after the procedure.(21) There were many limitations of this study including the absence of a control cohort and non-compliance amongst study participants. A target population of participants with a BMI of 40 kg/m2 and above was too high considering the bariatric embolization procedure is comparable to endoscopic bariatric therapies rather than bariatric surgery. BEAT Obesity excluded participants with comorbidities, such as those who suffer from diabetes, who may greatly benefit from this procedure and are often the target population for endoscopic/surgical bariatric therapies. A larger bead size of 300-500 µm was specifically chosen compared to preclinical data and prior clinical reports due to concerns of gastric ischemia and ulceration. However, smaller bead size produces greater weight loss and hormonal shifts.(22) Investigators hypothesize that transvascular bariatric embolization results in safe and effective weight loss in obese participants compared to control subjects.

Start: January 2020