Effects of Postpartum Weight Loss Intervention on Partner and Offspring Weight

Lifestyle interventions targeting overweight/obese individuals can produce positive "ripple" effects on untreated overweight partners in the home. Interestingly, ripple effects on partners' weight appear most pronounced when the interventions target women. Women, and mothers in particular, remain the primary "nutritional gatekeepers" of the home. Despite widespread recognition that motherhood is a powerful motivator for behavior changes, no study to date has examined the "ripple" effects of a postpartum Internet-based lifestyle intervention that target mothers' weight. The purpose of this ancillary study is to determine whether a behavioral weight loss intervention for postpartum mothers (5R01DK087889-02, PI Phelan; Co-I Tate) has a positive "ripple" effect on weight and health of partners and children/offspring. The proposed study is ancillary to an ongoing clinic-randomized trial examining the efficacy of an innovative multicomponent (online, face-to-face, mobile phone) postpartum behavioral weight loss intervention in 408 low-income women in the Women, Infants, and Children program. The proposed study will determine whether partners of women randomized to the postpartum BWL intervention have greater weight losses and greater improvements in health outcomes than partners of women in standard WIC. Similar to the parent grant, assessments will occur at study entry, 6 months, and 12 months. This project is highly innovative, as it capitalizes on existing funded research and is the first study to examine ripple effects of multicomponent Internet-based intervention in low-income individuals. The project also has high impact, as the postpartum period is a powerful motivator for behavior and environmental changes in the home; and, if positive ripple effects occur, the field of obesity treatment and prevention could move beyond focus on individual level to the often, unrecognized interpersonal effects of lifestyle interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research project will examine whether a postpartum weight-loss intervention has a positive "ripple" effects on weight and health of untreated partners and offspring/children in the home.