Summary
Objective
Understand whether parents lose less weight than non‐parents in behavioral weight interventions.
Methods
The Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial randomized adults with type 2 diabetes and overweight to an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) or control (DSE). Participants who reported living with a child under age 18 were designated as “parents” for this analysis. Intention to treat analysis was performed of the effect of the ILI on change in weight at 1 year by parental status. Adherence to attending intervention visits was compared between parents and non‐parents. Subgroup analyses were done based on previous sub‐group findings in the Look AHEAD study.
Results
Among 4,547 participants, 15% were parents. Parents were younger and more likely to have self‐identified as African American or Hispanic/Latino. Comparing ILI to DSE, parents lost less weight than non‐parents (‐7.1% vs ‐8.3%, p=0.021). African American female parents lost 4% body weight compared to 7% in African American female non‐parents (p=0.01).
Conclusions
In a randomized trial, parents lost less weight than non‐parents, and this difference was largest for African American women. These findings suggest parents face unique challenges achieving weight loss; more research is needed to understand and optimize interventions for parents.