# Promoting healthy weight across the pregnancy and postpartum period through dissemination of an evidence based intervention

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $654,057

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The childbearing years are a particularly vulnerable time period for women during which they tend to gain
disproportionately large amounts of weight when compared to men or other life periods. Weight gained during
pregnancy and retained after the postpartum period contributes to obesity development and progression. Our
team developed a lifestyle modification intervention in partnership with Parents as Teachers (PAT), a national
home visiting, community based organization with significant reach in this population. PAT provides parent-child
education and services free-of-charge to families through frequent home visits every year from the prenatal
period until the child enters kindergarten. The intervention (EMPOWER) prevented excessive gestational weight
gain and postpartum weight retention by embedding content within the existing PAT visit structure. This study
will extend these findings with a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial to evaluate dissemination and
implementation of EMPOWER across multiple levels (mother, parent educator, PAT site) to achieve widespread
impact. We will evaluate the impact of EMPOWER on gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention
among mothers with overweight and obesity across the US (N= 266 EMPOWER; N= 266 usual care). Parent
educators from 28 existing PAT sites (14 EMPOWER, 14 usual care) will receive the EMPOWER training
curriculum through the PAT National Center using the existing training infrastructure. An extensive evaluation
guided by RE-AIM, will determine implementation outcomes (acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility,
fidelity, and adaptation). The Conceptual Framework for Implementation Research will characterize determinants
that influence EMPOWER dissemination and implementation at multiple levels (mother, parent educator, PAT
site) to enhance external validity (reach and maintenance) and population level impact. The findings from this
innovative study will reach young women who have experienced the greatest increase in obesity prevalence in
the past 45 years compared to other groups, due in part to weight gain associated with child bearing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10130521
- **Project number:** 5R01DK121475-03
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Debra Haire-Joshu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $654,057
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10130521

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10130521, Promoting healthy weight across the pregnancy and postpartum period through dissemination of an evidence based intervention (5R01DK121475-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10130521. Licensed CC0.

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