NCT06994923

Weight Management Intervention in College: A Pilot

Testing a Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention for Emerging Adults Implemented Within College Health Service Centers

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 60 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The Miriam Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 29 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This pilot randomized controlled trial will examine a behavioral weight loss intervention that uses a "small change" approach fro emerging adult college students with overweight/obesity. The primary aim is to assess student acceptability and clinically-meaningful weight changes.

Detailed description

Forty percent of emerging adults (age 18-25) have overweight or obesity, which is unlikely to remit and has significant health consequences. However, emerging adults are underrepresented in traditional weight loss programs, drop-out at high rates, and have blunted weight loss outcomes. One potential way to improve participation is to offer BWLIs in college health service centers to reduce barriers to participation. Approximately 40% of emerging adults are enrolled in a postsecondary institution and college health centers are used widely by students. Moreover, delivering an intervention with design features that are responsive to emerging adult preferences and lifestyles may also improve intervention effectiveness and attractiveness. The "small change" (SC) approach to weight loss addresses emerging adult barriers to engagement by focusing on reducing calories through a few self-selected, specific changes to current obesogenic behaviors, requiring less time and effort than traditional behavioral weight loss interventions (BWLI) and promoting autonomy and self-efficacy. The SC approach has been used effectively for weight loss in other populations. This randomized controlled pilot study is part of a larger study that aims to develop and refine a novel and effective BWLI based on a SC approach that is designed for emerging adults and for implementation in college health centers, an accessible care setting. The primary aim of this substudy is to assess acceptability and feasibility of the intervention and to get a preliminary understanding of potential clinical benefit for participants.

Conditions

• Obesity and Overweight

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	BWLI-College	Behavioral modifications are based on empirically-supported principles for weight loss. Diet recommendations follow a small change approach in which participants will make a series of small, self-selected dietary changes each day (\~100-200 calories) that they build on over the course of the intervention. Physical activity recommendations are to achieve 150-250 weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with specific goals and rate of progression that are individualized to each participant.
BEHAVIORAL	Control	Psychoeducation around dieting myths, healthy eating, and physical activity

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-01-20
• Primary completion: 2027-03-01
• Completion: 2027-04-01
• First posted: 2025-05-29
• Last updated: 2025-10-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States