Fit Moms in Partners, Children, and Other Members

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.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Man or woman who self-identifies as sharing an intimate relationship and cohabitating
in the home with the postpartum woman (enrolled in the parent grant) for the previous
3 months or recently been married and living in the home

- ≥18 years

- willing to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria: