Trial of family and friend support for weight loss in African American adults.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: Family and friend participation may provide culturally salient social support for weight loss in African American adults. METHODS: SHARE (Supporting Healthy Activity and eating Right Everyday) was a 2-year trial of a culturally specific weight loss program. African American women and men who enrolled alone (individual stratum, 63 index participants) or together with 1 or 2 family members or friends (family stratum, 130 index participants) were randomized, within strata, to high or low social support treatments; 90% were female. RESULTS: At 6 months, the family index participants lost approximately 5 to 6 kg; the individual index participants lost approximately 3 to 4 kg. The mean weight change was not different in high vs low social support in either stratum and generally not when high or low support treatments were compared across strata. The overall intention-to-treat mean weight change at 24 months was -2.4 kg (95% confidence interval, -3.3 kg to -1.5 kg). The family index participant weight loss was greater among the participants whose partners attended more personally tailored counseling sessions at 6 months in the high-support group and at 6, 12, and 24 months in the low-support group (all P < .05). Also, in the 6-month intention-to-treat analysis, the percentage of weight loss of the family index participants was greater if partners lost at least 5% vs less than 5% of their baseline weight (respectively, -6.1% vs -2.9% [P = .004], high support; and -6.1% vs -3.1% [P = .01], low support). CONCLUSIONS: Being assigned to participate with family members, friends, or other group members had no effect on weight change. Enrolling with others was associated with greater weight loss only when partners participated more and lost more weight. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00146081.

Author information

Author/s: Kumanyika, Shiriki K (SK); Wadden, Thomas A (TA); Shults, Justine (J); Fassbender, Jennifer E (JE); Brown, Stacey D (SD); Bowman, Marjorie A (MA); Brake, Vivian (V); West, William (W); Frazier, Johnetta (J); Whitt-Glover, Melicia C (MC); Kallan, Michael J (MJ); Desnouee, Emily (E); Wu, Xiaoying (X);

Affiliation: Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021, USA. skumanyi(-atsign-)mail.med.upenn.edu

Grants: M01 RR00040 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS) ; R01 HL 69400 (Agency:NHLBI NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Archives of internal medicine (Arch Intern Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Oct; vol 169 (issue 19) : pp 1795-804

Dates: Created 2009/10/27; Completed 2009/11/05;

PMID: 19858438, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/5/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Arch Intern Med. 2009 Oct 26;169(19):1804-5. (PMID: 19858439)

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