Study is one of few trials to recruit large percentage of African American
participants
PORTLAND, Ore., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Keeping a food diary can double a
person's weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for
Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running
weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August
issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National
Institutes of Health, the study is one of the few studies to recruit a large
percentage of African Americans as study participants (44 percent). African
Americans have a higher risk of conditions that are aggravated by being
overweight, including diabetes and heart disease. In this study, the majority
of African American participants lost at least nine pounds of weight, which is
higher than in previous studies.
"The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost," said lead
author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for
Health Research in Portland, Ore. "Those who kept daily food records lost
twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple
act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories."
In addition to keeping food diaries and turning them in at weekly support
group meetings, participants were asked to follow a heart-healthy DASH (a
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet rich in fruits and vegetables
and low-fat or non-fat dairy, attend weekly group sessions and exercise at
moderate intensity levels for at least 30 minutes a day. After six months, the
average weight loss among the nearly 1,700 participants was approximately 13
pounds. More than two-thirds of the participants (69 percent) lost at least
nine pounds, enough to reduce their health risks and qualify for the second
phase of the study, which lasted 30 months and tested strategies for
maintaining the weight loss.
"More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. If we all lost
just nine pounds, like the majority of people in this study did, our nation
would see vast decreases in hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart
disease and stroke," said study co-author Victor Stevens, Ph.D., a Kaiser
Permanente researcher. For example, in an earlier study Stevens found that
losing as little as five pounds can reduce the risk of developing high blood
pressure by 20 percent.
The Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute's Weight Management
Initiative (http://www.kpcmi.org/weight-management/index.html) has recommended
food journaling as a strategy for losing weight since 2002. The Weight
Management Initiative unites clinicians, researchers, insurers, and
policymakers to identify practical, effective, non-surgical approaches for the
prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.
"Keeping a food diary doesn't have to be a formal thing. Just the act of
scribbling down what you eat on a Post-it note, sending yourself e-mails
tallying each meal, or sending yourself a text message will suffice. It's the
process of reflecting on what you eat that helps us become aware of our
habits, and hopefully change our behavior," says Keith Bachman, MD, a Weight
Management Initiative member. "Every day I hear patients say they can't lose
weight. This study shows that most people can lose weight if they have the
right tools and support. And food journaling in conjunction with a weight
management program or class is the ideal combination of tools and support."
The study, coordinated by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
in Portland, also was conducted at Duke University Medical Center, Pennington
Biomedical Research Center, and Johns Hopkins University. In addition to
Hollis and Stevens, the Kaiser Permanente research team included William M.
Vollmer, Ph.D.; Cristina M. Gullion, Ph.D.; Kristine Funk, M.S.; and Daniel
Laferriere, MR. Other study co-authors included Phillip J. Brantley, Ph.D. and
Catherine M. Champagne, Ph.D. at Pennington; Jamy D. Ard, MD, at the
University of Alabama at Birmingham; Thomas P. Erlinger, MD, MPH, at the
University of Texas; Lawrence J. Appel, M.D., and Arlene Dalcin at Johns
Hopkins; Pao-Hwa Lin, Ph.D., and Laura P. Svetkey, MD, at Duke University;
Carmen Samuel-Hodge, Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill; and Catherine M. Loria, Ph.D., at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute and National Institutes of Health.
About the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a
nonprofit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve
health. It has research sites in Portland, Ore., Honolulu, Hawaii and Atlanta.
About Kaiser Permanente Research
Kaiser Permanente's eight research centers comprise one of the largest
research programs in the United States and engage in work designed to improve
the health of individuals everywhere. KP HealthConnect(TM), Kaiser
Permanente's electronic health record, and other resources provide population
data for research, and in turn, research findings are fed into KP
HealthConnect to arm physicians with research and clinical data. Kaiser
Permanente's research program works with national and local health agencies
and community organizations to share and widely disseminate its research data.
Kaiser Permanente's research program is funded in part by Kaiser Permanente's
Community Benefit division, which in 2007 directed an estimated $1 billion in
health services, technology, and funding toward total community health.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health plan. Founded in
1945, it is a not-for-profit; group practice prepayment program headquartered
in Oakland, Calif. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 8.7
million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Today it
encompasses the not-for-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser
Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Permanente
Medical Groups. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 159,000
technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than
13,000 physicians representing all specialties. For more Kaiser Permanente
news, visit the KP News Center at: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter.
SOURCE Kaiser Permanente
Danielle Cass, +1-510-267-5354, Danielle.X.Cass@kp.org, or Farra Levin,
+1-510-267-7364, Farra.R.Levin@kp.org, both of Kaiser Permanente
