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

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Obesity
• Interventions: Behavioral: Home visit; Behavioral: Social network building intervention

• Registration Number: NCT01081340
• Lead Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2010-03-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-03-03
• Study First Posted: 2010-03-05
• Study Start: 2010-05
• Primary Completion: 2011-08
• Study Completion: 2011-08
• Status Verified: 2018-08
• Last Update Submitted: 2018-08-09
• Last Update Posted: 2018-08-13

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 41

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Home visit	Home visit	Home visits focused on preventable infant injuries
Social network building intervention	Social network building intervention	Healthy lifestyle intervention focused on building reciprocal social ties between the intervention group members

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Weight (kg)	6 times over 10 months	gestational weight gain and postpartum weight loss

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Body composition	3 times over 6 months	BIA postpartum
Nutrition	6 times over 10 months	Fat/Fruit/Vegetable intake
Physical Activity	6 times over 10 months	self-report
Infant feeding practices	3 times over 6 months	duration of breastfeeding, use of supplemental fluids, overfeeding, timing of the introduction of solids
Depression	6 times over 10 months
Social network structure	6 times over 10 months	number and type of relationships
Waist Circumference	3 times over 6 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Coleman Regional Community Center - Parks & Rec Department; 🇺🇸 Nashville, Tennessee, United States