Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle Improvement Study — PEARLS  

Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title: Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle Improvement Study

Status Terminated

Clinical Trial Summary

The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial in 200 overweight/obese pregnant women and their offspring. The prenatal intervention will emphasize improving diet and physical activity. The lifestyle intervention will be delivered within an empowerment theoretical framework through a combination of group sessions, individual counseling, and by monitoring compliance to diet and physical activity to further tailor the intervention. The post-partum intervention sessions will include mothers and their offspring and will focus on breastfeeding, improving physical activity and quality of the diet and feeding practices through the first post-partum year. As part of routine prenatal care, participants in both the control and intervention arms will be given health-related advice. Since the majority of participants are expected to be eligible for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, both groups will also receive assistance through WIC as per their routine policies. Our primary outcome is Gestational Weight Gain (GWG). The major secondary outcome of interest is infant BMI z-score at 12 months of age, and the investigators will also be evaluating several metabolic outcomes in mothers and infants.

Clinical Trial Description

Obesity and hyperglycemia in pregnancy are thought to impact fetal growth through over-nutrition and may stress the fetal pancreas because of the increased demand for insulin. Such intrauterine programming events affect birth weight and raise the offspring's risk trajectory for future obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial in 200 overweight or obese pregnant Puerto Rican women (free of diabetes) and their infants, to favorably impact metabolic health in mothers and infants.

Women presenting will be randomized to a lifestyle modification intervention or standard care control group before 16 gestational weeks. The intervention will focus on improving: (1) physical activity levels and (2) diet quality and calorie intake. The lifestyle intervention will be delivered within an empowerment theoretical framework through individualized intervention sessions, intensive group sessions, and by phone calls. The intervention will continue through the first postpartum year and will include the infants. A key objective is to evaluate whether the intervention optimizes infant BMI z-score. We will also evaluate whether the intervention increases the number of women who experience appropriate gestational weight gain, and evaluate several additional aims including relating the interventions with improved insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function in the women, and insulin concentrations adjusted for glucose in their infants.This study will also help us to identify and overcome barriers to develop effective ways of intervening during pregnancy to meaningfully improve cardio-metabolic risk trajectories of future generations. ;

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Investigator), Primary Purpose: Treatment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Hyperglycemia
• Obesity

• NCT number: NCT01771133
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Puerto Rico
• Status: Terminated
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 2013
• Completion date: November 2015