Rachel Tabak, PhD, research associate professor at the Brown School, has received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study ways to prevent weight gain and chronic disease among mothers age 18-35.
“The research team developed a lifestyle modification intervention, Healthy Eating and Active Living Taught at Home (HEALTH) that prevented weight gain, promoted sustained weight loss and reduced waist circumference in partnership with Parents as Teachers (PAT), a national home-visiting, community-based organization with significant reach in this population,” she said. HEALTH embeds content related to healthy eating and physical activity within PAT’s existing curriculum and visit structure, which utilizes an existing channel for the intervention well beyond the study funding. Researchers are testing how to implement the intervention across a wide range of sites across the county, so it is able to reach more families.
“The findings from this new study will have significant potential to help reverse the trend of excessive weight gain among young adult women, a critical priority target in battling the epidemics of obesity and chronic disease, by reaching women with an evidence-based intervention nationwide,” Tabak said.
Read the Source article here.
Congratulations Rachel!