Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia, 30322, United States
NCT Number: NCT06127251
The phenomenon of physical activity (PA) avoidance in obesity has been detailed in the literature, but there is a lack of programs designed to address the root causes. In addition to common PA barriers such as lack of time, individuals with obesity face weight-related impediments, including stigma, shame, poor fitness, and low exercise self-efficacy, which reduce their engagement in PA. These impediments have been observed in white and minoritized populations. Numerous studies have suggested that individuals with obesity prefer activities that are enjoyable, less exhausting, and conveniently available in settings where they are not exposed to stigma. The studies also point to a need for programs that focus on the general health benefits of PA rather than weight loss, which although desirable, can be elusive.
Unmet weight loss expectations contribute to high dropout rates and non-adherence to the prescribed PA regimen among those with obesity. This is particularly consequential for minoritized populations including African Americans who tend to lose less weight in lifestyle interventions but achieve significant improvements in many cardiometabolic outcomes.
In this proposal, investigators present PA as a buffer against the deleterious effects of obesity, agnostic of weight loss status.
The Physical Activity for The Heart (PATH) program was intentionally designed to provide vicarious experiences for diverse individuals with obesity, by featuring their peers in body size, fitness level, and age engaging in PA.
The impact of the PATH intervention on these biomarkers will provide important insights into the mechanisms via which a combination of popular PA modalities improves cardiometabolic outcomes in the context of obesity.
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Notify Me18 year and older
All sexes
Interventional
Not applicable
Atlanta, Georgia, 30322, United States
The proposed research is significant because it will provide key evidence supporting the use of curated, openly sourced content to address PA barriers in obesity. Physical Activity for The Heart (PATH) intervention, which is anchored on the social cognitive theory's (SCT) premise that observing similar (i.e. body type, fitness level, age) others succeed can motivate action and help demonstrate a plan for success.
Thus proposal will examine the feasibility of using PATH in a weight-neutral context and the preliminary effects on adipocytokines that influence insulin resistance. If PATH improves PA and adipocytokines, it could provide a highly scalable tool for mitigating the risk of cardiometabolic disease, especially among those looking for weight-agnostic PA programs. The walking, dance, and abdominal core workouts to be examined in this proposal are extremely popular and abundant on YouTube, which makes it easy to access and curate content that can be tailored to individual preferences.
The highly scalable PATH program is accessible at any time in any setting and can lessen the impact of unpredictable barriers to PA such as inclement weather or pandemics.
Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
The PATH intervention guides participants in making changes in their lifestyle and PA habits to support gradual improvement of PA. The health coach provides participants with access to the PATH website and instructions on how to use the resources included in PATH. The health coach meets remotely with each participant twice per month to develop a tailored plan geared towards increasing MVPA. After assigning the PATH level, the health coach guides each participant in selecting their weekly PA goal and helps them start slowly with a plan to establish regular exercise frequencies of 3-5 days per week.
Participants will use a combination of walking, dance, and abdominal core workouts to add at least 10 minutes of MVPA to their baseline PA every two weeks. The remote coach will encourage each participant to engage in at least 2 days of aerobic training (walking or dance sessions), and one day of abdominal core workouts.
Other names: PATH
Study staff will have a Zoom meeting with each control group participant where they will be advised to use the Be Active Your Way handout and to self-monitor PA using ScanWatch. Additionally, the group will be introduced to www.health.com, a jargon-free website that focuses on general health topics (e.g., dry eye) and the latest medical news (e.g., vaccines). Every 2 weeks control participants will meet on Zoom with study staff to review their progress in the study so as to keep the contact between the groups as similar as possible.
Participants will be asked to wear a ScanWatch tracker on their non-dominant hand for the entire duration of the study using a 24-hour wear protocol.
Other names: ScanWatch
The research team will examine diet quality and provide all study participants with educational content curated to promote diet quality. To minimize participants' burden, both the intervention and control arms will receive an email with a brief PDF addressing new diet components every 4 weeks
Time frame: 4 months after screening procedures start
Number of participants enrolled within 4 months after the study opened to enrollment.
Time frame: 12 weeks
Number of participants (Retention rate) retained in each group at 12 weeks after enrollment
Time frame: 12 weeks
The System Usability Scale (SUS) is an industry-standard, 10-item questionnaire used to evaluate the perceived usability of a product, system, or service. It provides a quick, reliable, and quantifiable measure of ease of use and user satisfaction. Users rate their level of agreement or disagreement with 10 statements using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree). Responses are converted and summed according to standard SUS scoring and transformed to a total score ranging from 0 to 100. The average score is about 68. A score above 68 is considered above average/good; a score below 68 is below average. Acceptability Ranges: Scores above 70 are typically considered "Acceptable," while scores below 50 usually indicate a system with poorer usability that needs to be redesigned.
Time frame: 12 weeks
Participant satisfaction was assessed using an end-of-study user experience survey. Participants rated navigation ease (extremely easy/very easy) and overall satisfaction with the content and messaging.
Navigation ease (extremely/very easy) Cultural appropriateness (very/somewhat appropriate) Workout access (extremely/very easy) Text reminders helpful (extremely/very helpful)
Time frame: 12 weeks
Participants who visited the PATH platform at least twice weekly.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
Adiponectin is a hormone released by adipose tissue and other body tissues, which assists with insulin sensitivity and reduces inflammation. Normal ranges vary depending on sex and BMI and in general lower levels are associated with health conditions of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Adiponectin and leptin will be collected via dry blood spot kits. A significant increase in adiponectin and decline in leptin, and T2D risk score will indicate improved adipocytokine and cardiometabolic risk profile and vice versa.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
MCP-1 is one of the key chemokines that regulate the migration and infiltration of monocytes/macrophages. MCP-1 will be collected via dry blood spot kits. A significant decline in MCP-1 will indicate improved adipocytokine and cardiometabolic risk profile and vice versa.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
Proinflammatory cytokines: tumor necrosis factor Alpha (TNF-α), Interleukin-1 beta (IL1β), and Interleukin-6 (IL6), and CRP will be collected via dry blood spot kits. A significant decline in TNF-α, IL1β, and IL6 will indicate improved adipocytokine and cardiometabolic risk profile, and vice versa.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
Collected via Dried Blood Spot (DBS) kits
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
The calculation of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) T2D risk score includes covariates such as age, sex, family history of diabetes, history of high blood pressure (BP), body mass index, and PA regimen (total score of 0-11). Scores ≥5 should be formally screened for diabetes per ADA guidelines.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
EXSE Scale assesses an individual's beliefs in their ability to continue exercising on a three-time-per-week basis at moderate intensities for 40+ minutes per session in the future. For each item, participants indicate their confidence to execute the behavior on a 100-point percentage scale comprised of 10-point increments, ranging from 0% (not at all confident) to 100% (highly confident). The total strength for each measure of self-efficacy is then calculated by summing the confidence ratings and dividing by the total number of items in the scale, resulting in a maximum possible efficacy score of 100.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
Exercise Self-regulation involves skills for planning, organizing, and managing exercise activities. will be measured by the Exercise Goal-Setting Scale (EGS) and the Exercise Planning and Scheduling Scale (EPS). Participants will rate 10 EGS items and 10 EPS items on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (does not describe) to 5 (describes completely). Higher levels of self-regulatory skills, such as goal-setting, self-monitoring, planning, and problem-solving, may result in higher levels of PA.
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale is an 18-item scale that assesses enjoyment of physical activity by asking participants to rate "how do you feel at the moment about the physical activity you have been doing" using a 7- point bipolar Likert scale, from 1 (I enjoy it) to 7 (I hate).
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
SSQ has two-part answer questions. It asks to list up to 9 people who provide support that meets the criteria stated in the question. The support persons are listed by initials and relationship to the participant. Participants then rate their satisfaction (1 - very dissatisfied to 6 - very satisfied) with the support of each person stated in the first part. The support score (SSQN) is calculated by the average of the individual scores across the 27 items. A high score indicates more optimism about life than a low score. Low SSQ scores have a higher prevalence of negative life events and illness.
Add the total number of people for all 27 items. (Max. is 243). Divide by 27 for the average item score=SSQ Number Score (SSQN) Add the total satisfaction scores for all 27 items. (Max is 162). Divide by 27 for the average item score=SSQ Satisfaction score (SSQS) Average the above for the total number of family members - this results in the SSQ family score
Time frame: Baseline and 12 weeks
The Outcome Expectations for Exercise Scale (OEE) contains 9 statements rated by participants using a 5-point Likert scale from 1 "Strongly Disagree" to 5 "Strongly Agree". The OEE was made primarily to study older adults with low expectations of the effects of exercise.
Emory University
Other
A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial of Walking, Dance, and Abdominal Core Workouts to Improve Adipocytokines Among Insufficiently Active Adults With Obesity
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