Goran Lab: Home Intervention for Reducing Sugary Drinks and Obesity in Latino Women and Infants
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and juices (SSB/J) in infancy correlates with obesity in early childhood. As a significant public health issue, this association requires family-based solutions.
Study conception
While a previous trial in obese teenagers showed no effect of SSB/J reduction in Caucasians, it showed a significant effect in Latinos. Furthermore, no study has examined the effects of SSB/J reduction during infancy, when SSB/J consumption begins, and adipose tissue rapidly develops.
Therefore, this trial aims to reduce SSB/J consumption in low-income, Latino postpartum mothers and infants, a segment of the population at high risk for obesity.
Although we need more maternal-infant interventions, they present many challenges such as compliance and retention. Here, we propose an innovative solution.
Study design
The study design merges components of effective interventions for SSB/J reduction and maternal-infant nutrition with regular educational sessions delivered by community health workers. These visits were originally intended to be home visits, but since the start of the pandemic they are being delivered by telehealth.
Our 24-month intervention focuses on:
- Reducing mothers’ intake of sugary beverages and juices and replacing with water and other plain or carbonated beverages without sugars or sweeteners.
- Delaying introduction and limiting access to sugary beverages and juices in infants
- Home delivery of water/non-caloric beverages
We will randomize Latino mothers who were overweight or obese prior to pregnancy (n=240) with their newborn infants into one of three groups:
- Group 1 (efficacy) receives intervention visits and educational material focused on reducing sugary beverages and juices plus home delivery of bottled water
- Group 2 (translation) is identical to Group 1 but without home delivery of bottled water.
- Group 3 (control) receives standard of care educational material from the health workers such as information about child safety and general child health.
Study aims
This trial has three aims. These aims include testing whether:
- The intervention will reduce obesity and metabolic risk in postpartum mothers.
- The intervention will reduce the trajectory for body fat and weight-for-length in infants. We will also examine if these effects occur without home delivery of bottled water, thereby supporting scalability of the intervention approach.
- Maternal transmission—related to changes in maternal sweet taste preference, use of SSB/J to sooth infants, use of sugary foods during weaning and the profile of sugars in breast milk—mediates the effects on infants.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03141346
