Interactive Mobile Messaging for Weight Control Among the Underserved
Condition: Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This project will test the efficacy of the "TRIMM" (Tailored Rapid Interactive Mobile
      Messaging) program, a user-friendly, semi-individualized text-messaging intervention to
      facilitate lifestyle change and weight loss among obese African-American adults with or at
      risk for diabetes, in a pilot, controlled clinical trial.

      The text-messaging intervention will be in addition to, and compared with traditional diet,
      behavior, and physical activity education. Tips will be designed to increase knowledge,
      skills, and motivation.
    

Detailed description: 
      Type-2 diabetes, and its most important risk factor, obesity, have become major strains on
      our nation's health care system. By 2050, one in three U.S. adults could have diabetes
      (Stobbe, 2010), and obesity currently contributes nearly 17% of U.S. medical costs (Cawley,
      2010). Our nation's underserved urban minority populations disproportionately suffer from
      type-2 diabetes and obesity. African-Americans, for example, comprise 12% of the US
      population but 23% of the extremely obese (Livingston, 2004). To reduce diabetes, obesity
      must be addressed. Unfortunately, traditional obesity interventions are intrusive and costly.

      This project will test the efficacy of the "TRIMM" (Tailored Rapid Interactive Mobile
      Messaging) program, a user-friendly, semi-individualized text-messaging intervention to
      facilitate lifestyle change and weight loss among obese African-American adults with or at
      risk for diabetes, in a pilot, controlled clinical trial.

      The text-messaging intervention will be in addition to, and compared with traditional diet,
      behavior, and physical activity education. Tips will be designed to increase knowledge,
      skills, and motivation. Participants will have the option to receive spiritually-based
      messages, if desired.

      166 overweight or obese men and women will be recruited from 10 Baltimore inner-city
      churches, and will be assigned to one of two, six-month lifestyle-change programs.
      Participants must be overweight, aged 21-65, and own a cell phone with text-messaging
      capability. To be eligible for the study, participants will need to first pass a health
      screening and meet other study criteria.

      The McKesson Foundation is funding this study, which has a total of 5 visits, ranging from ½
      hr. to 3 hrs. The active intervention will last 6 months, with a follow-up visit at month 12.
      The TRIMM Program will feature periodic, individualized text messages and feedback via the
      participant's mobile phone as well as periodic follow-up appointments. The traditional
      program will consist of traditional diet, behavior, and physical activity education.

      Qualified participants will receive individualized weight-loss plans and monetary
      compensation for their time, effort, & parking.

      The long-term goal is to demonstrate, using a real-life setting, the potential superiority in
      efficacy of a specific mHealth application (text-messaging) for an underserved population at
      high risk of type-2 diabetes, compared to traditional, often more costly, and currently
      underutilized lifestyle-change interventions.
    

Intervention name(s): TRIMM Intervention; Standard Care
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Individuals in the TRIMM arm receive daily, individualized text-messages promoting positive lifestyle changes to support weight loss/management.; Individual assessment, lifestyle counseling
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Care Provider)
Primary purpose: Treatment