Building Social Networks to Enhance Postpartum Weight Loss and Appropriate Infant Feeding Practices

Wake Forest University (WFU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Social network building intervention; Behavioral: Home visit

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01081340

IRB00034677

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine whether we can use social networks to spread health information and health behaviors that 1) support women in returning to their pre-pregnancy weight after delivery; and 2) promote healthy infant feeding practices.

Full description

The long-term goal of this research is to prevent obesity-related adverse health outcomes for future generations by applying information emerging from social network studies to the development of new population-based behavioral interventions. There are a number of critical periods during fetal and infant development that appear to influence the later development of obesity. Interventions that prevent insult to these critical windows from occurring could improve children's life course trajectories. This project sets the groundwork for examining whether social networks could explicitly be utilized to prevent obesity from developing by transmitting health information and health behaviors that 1) prevent postpartum weight retention in first time mothers and 2) promote appropriate infant feeding practices. The secondary aim is to assess which individual-level network-related characteristics best predict postpartum body composition and infant feeding practices.

Enrollment: 41 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Latina (self-defined, or born in Central or South America)
• Spanish-speaking and/or English-speaking,
• 18 years of age or older
• less than 24 weeks pregnant
• did or did not have a termination of a previous pregnancy before 20 weeks
• has not carried a pregnancy to term
• normal, overweight or obese (pre-pregnancy BMI >18.5 and <39)

Exclusion criteria

• non-Latina,
• non-Spanish-speaking or non-English speaking
• less than 18 years of age
• more than 24 weeks pregnant
• had a termination of a previous pregnancy after 20 weeks
• multiparous
• underweight (pre-pregnancy BMI < 18.5)
• morbidly obese (pre-pregnancy BMI ≥ 39)
• currently enrolled in another program that targets weight, physical activity, or nutrition

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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41 participants in 2 patient groups

Social network building intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Healthy lifestyle intervention focused on building reciprocal social ties between the intervention group members

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social network building intervention

Home visit

Active Comparator group

Description:

Home visits focused on preventable infant injuries

Treatment:

Behavioral: Home visit