PRCHN Seminar Series: “Findings of Three-Year IMPACT Behavioral Intervention Trial”

The Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (PRCHN) Seminar Series continues Wednesday, Feb. 14, from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the ground-floor conference room of the BioEnterprise Building. Elaine Borawski, director of PRCHN, will present “Findings of Three-Year IMPACT Behavioral Intervention Trial.” In her presentation, Borawski will discuss initial findings from the Ideas Moving Parents & Adolescents to Change Together (IMPACT) study. Borawski is co-principal investigator of the study.

About the presentation

Despite ongoing efforts, adolescent obesity continues to be a concerning issue in the U.S. With one in three children today being overweight or obese and significant disparities by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, it is critical to identify effective strategies for weight management in these children to reduce their risk for future health problems. This presentation will reveal the initial results of the IMPACT Study, a three-year behavioral intervention trial involving 360 low-income, mostly minority Cleveland adolescents who were overweight or obese at baseline and one parent (mostly mothers) recruited from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The aim of the study was to compare the effects of three distinct behavioral obesity management interventions on BMI, as well as to assess the additive effect of an enriched school-based intervention (the We Run This City Youth Marathon Program). Secondary aims assess the effects of the interventions on cardiovascular risk factors, diet, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep and quality of life as well as exploring the role of a wide range of social and environmental factors (home, school and neighborhood).

About the speaker

Elaine A. Borawski is the Angela Bowen Williamson Professor of Community Nutrition in the Departments of population and quantitative health sciences and nutrition in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. She also is the director of the PRCHN, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-supported research center focused on community-based, resident-engaged prevention research. Borawski’s research interests focus on the social and environmental influences of health and health behavior, and the development and testing of new intervention strategies that draw from the strengths of the neighborhoods and the people who live in them. Her work includes interventions addressing obesity, food insecurity, tobacco prevention and other high-risk behaviors prevalent within urban communities.

About the series

The PRCHN Seminar Series takes place on the second Wednesday of the month from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the PRCHN ground-floor conference room of the BioEnterprise Building. All seminars are free and open to the public. Parking is available. Learn more at prchn.org/PRCSeminarSeries.aspx.