Abstract

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults and children has increased dramatically over the past two decades with greater increases among Latinos. In North Carolina, 61% of Latino adults are overweight or obese, and 20% of children 2- to 4-years of age are at risk for developing overweight. Latina mothers influence their children's nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Therefore, it is important to provide Latina mothers with the tools necessary to manage their own weight and prevent the development of overweight in their young children. We are extending the Principal Investigator's (PI's) nutrition, exercise, and coping skills weight management intervention (R01 NR010254) to Latina mothers and their 2- to 4-year old children. Over the past 2 years we have used Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to translate study materials into low-literacy Spanish, and adapt and test the feasibility of the intervention. The Aim of this study is to estimate the effect of a 6-month weight management intervention with overweight Latina mothers and their 2- to 4-year old children. The intervention has a 3-month weekly intensive phase followed by 3-months of continued monthly contact.

We hypothesize that Latina mothers in the experimental group as compared to the control group will demonstrate a significantly greater reduction in body mass index (BMI) and adiposity, and significantly greater improvements in health behaviors and self-efficacy from baseline to 3-months, 6-months, and 9-months follow-up; demonstrate a significantly greater reduction in risk for developing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes (fasting blood glucose and insulin levels) and cardiovascular disease (fasting lipid panel) from baseline to 9-months follow-up.

We hypothesize that 2- to 4-year old children of mothers in the experimental group as compared to the control group will demonstrate significantly greater stabilization of weight gain (BMI Percentile) and nutritional health behavior from baseline to 3-months, 6-months, and 9-months follow-up.

The results of the proposed pilot study will provide the foundation for an RO1 submission to NIDDK.