Deconstructing Weight Management Interventions for Young Adults: Looking Inside the Black Box of the EARLY Consortium Trials

Deborah F Tate¹, Leslie Lytle¹, Kristen Polzien², Molly Diamond², Kelsey R Leonard³, John M Jakicic⁴, Karen C Johnson⁵, Christine M Olson⁶, Kevin Patrick⁷, Laura P Svetkey⁸, Rena R Wing⁹, Pao-Hwa Lin⁸, Mathilda Coday⁵, Melissa N Laska¹⁰, Gina Merchant⁷, Sara J Czaja¹¹, Richard Schulz¹², Steven H Belle¹³

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Health Behavior and Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
² Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁴ Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center, Department of Health and Physical Activity, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁵ Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
⁶ Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
⁷ Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁸ Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, The Miriam Hospital/Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.
¹² Department of Psychology and University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹³ Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

PMID: 31135102
PMCID: PMC6749832
DOI: 10.1002/oby.22506

Deconstructing Weight Management Interventions for Young Adults: Looking Inside the Black Box of the EARLY Consortium Trials

Deborah F Tate et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2019 Jul.

. 2019 Jul;27(7):1085-1098.

doi: 10.1002/oby.22506. Epub 2019 May 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Health Behavior and Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
² Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁴ Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center, Department of Health and Physical Activity, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁵ Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
⁶ Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
⁷ Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁸ Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, The Miriam Hospital/Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA.
¹² Department of Psychology and University Center for Social and Urban Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
¹³ Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

PMID: 31135102
PMCID: PMC6749832
DOI: 10.1002/oby.22506

Abstract

Objective: The goal of the present study was to deconstruct the 17 treatment arms used in the Early Adult Reduction of weight through LifestYle (EARLY) weight management trials.

Methods: Intervention materials were coded to reflect behavioral domains and behavior change techniques (BCTs) within those domains planned for each treatment arm. The analytical hierarchy process was employed to determine an emphasis profile of domains in each intervention.

Results: The intervention arms used BCTs from all of the 16 domains, with an average of 29.3 BCTs per intervention arm. All 12 of the interventions included BCTs from the six domains of Goals and Planning, Feedback and Monitoring, Social Support, Shaping Knowledge, Natural Consequences, and Comparison of Outcomes; 11 of the 12 interventions shared 15 BCTs in common across those six domains.

Conclusions: Weight management interventions are complex. The shared set of BCTs used in the EARLY trials may represent a core intervention that could be studied to determine the required emphases of BCTs and whether additional BCTs add to or detract from efficacy. Deconstructing interventions will aid in reproducibility and understanding of active ingredients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Drs. Tate and Jakicic report being members of the Scientific Advisory Board for Weight Watcher’s International. The other authors have no Conflicts of Interest to report.

Figures

**Figure 1:**
Number of Domains and Behavior Change Techniques Used by EARLY Interventions

**Figure 2:**
Average BCT Usage per Domain by EARLY Interventions

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Lytle LA, Svetkey LP, Patrick K, et al. The EARLY trials: a consortium of studies targeting weight control in young adults. Transl Behav Med. 2014;4(3):304–313. - PMC - PubMed
1. Jakicic JM, Davis KK, Rogers RJ, et al. Effect of Wearable Technology Combined With a Lifestyle Intervention on Long-term Weight Loss: The IDEA Randomized Clinical Trial. Jama. 2016;316(11):1161–1171. - PMC - PubMed
1. Lin PH, Intille S, Bennett G, et al. Adaptive intervention design in mobile health: Intervention design and development in the Cell Phone Intervention for You trial. Clin Trials. 2015;12(6):634–645. - PMC - PubMed
1. Godino JG, Merchant G, Norman GJ, et al. Using social and mobile tools for weight loss in overweight and obese young adults (Project SMART): a 2 year, parallel-group, randomised, controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2016;4(9):747–755. - PMC - PubMed
1. Wing RR, Tate D, Espeland M, et al. Weight gain prevention in young adults: design of the study of novel approaches to weight gain prevention (SNAP) randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health. 2013;13:300. - PMC - PubMed

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Deconstructing Weight Management Interventions for Young Adults: Looking Inside the Black Box of the EARLY Consortium Trials

Affiliations

Deconstructing Weight Management Interventions for Young Adults: Looking Inside the Black Box of the EARLY Consortium Trials

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical