Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 6, 2026
Collecting Hair Samples for Hair Cortisol Analysis in African Americans
Published on: June 10, 2018
A Church-Based Weight Loss Intervention in African American Adults using Text Messages (LEAN Study): Cluster
Robert L Newton1, Leah A Carter1, William Johnson1
1Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, United States.
Background:
African American adults experience a high prevalence of obesity and its associated comorbidities, including diabetes. Church-based interventions have been shown to be effective in decreasing weight in this population. mHealth interventions can address two needs for obesity treatment in this community, including enhancing weight loss and providing wide dissemination.
Objective:
This study aimed to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a church-based weight loss intervention that incorporates mHealth technology.
Methods:
In this study, 8 churches (n=97) were randomly assigned to the intervention or delayed intervention condition (control group). We recruited participants through their respective church. Volunteer church members were trained by study staff to deliver the 10-session, 6-month intervention. Participants in the intervention group attended group sessions and received automated short message service (SMS) text messages designed to reinforce behavioral strategies. Conversely, participants in the delayed intervention condition received SMS text messages related to health conditions relevant for African American adults. We obtained measures of body composition, blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol.
Results:
We successfully recruited 97 African American adults, with a mean age of 56.0 (SE 10.3) years and a mean body mass index of 38.6 (SE 6.4) kg/m2 (89/97, 91.8% females), who attended the churches that were randomized to the intervention (n=68) or control (n=29) condition. Of these, 74.2% (72/97) of the participants (47/68, 69.1% intervention; 25/29, 86.2% delayed intervention) completed the 6-month assessment. The average intervention group attendance was 55%. There was a significant difference in weight loss (P=.04) between participants in the intervention (-1.5 (SE 0.5) kg) and control (0.11 (SE 0.6) kg) groups. Among participants in the intervention group, the correlation between the number of SMS text messages sent and the percent body fat loss was r=.3 with P=.04. The participants reported high satisfaction with the automated SMS text messages.
Conclusions:
Automated SMS text messages were well-received by participants, suggesting that more enhanced mHealth technologies are a viable option for interventions targeting African American adults.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02863887; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02863887 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/71JiYzizO).
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:30Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
01:20Bioequivalence Experimental Study Designs: Completely Randomized and Randomized Block Designs
01:10Line Loss
Line loss impacts power delivery efficiency in a balanced three-phase circuit. The symmetry in such a circuit simplifies the...
01:23Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
01:03Nursing Interventions I: Taxonomy of Nursing Interventions
A nursing intervention is a treatment or action based on scientific concepts and knowledge from the nursing, behavioral, and physical sciences. Identifying and prioritizing nursing interventions based on the desired outcome...
00:57Weighted Mean
For example, consider the number of goals scored in the matches of a tournament. While computing the average number of goals scored in the tournament, it may be more important to...