Do Changes in Diet Quality in a Weight Loss Trial Affect Cardiometabolic Risk? Jessica Cheng Project Summary/Abstract Although the importance of diet for weight loss, the prevention of chronic disease, and overall health has long been clear to researchers, weight loss intervention research favors calorie and fat reduction approaches but does not rigorously assess and report the impact of interventions on diet quality. The proposed research project will assess diet quality change based on 24-hour dietary recall data collected as part of the SMARTER randomized control trial (R01 HL131583). The SMARTER trial evaluates the effect on weight loss of providing real-time tailored feedback messages on self-monitored diet, physical activity, and weight compared to self-monitoring with no feedback. The Healthy Eating Index, which aligns with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, can be calculated from 24-hour dietary recalls which are collected at baseline, 6-, and 12-months. Lab-based measurements of weight, blood pressure, and waist circumference are collected at baseline, 6, and 12 months. Leveraging data from a large single-site trial (N=530) has the potential to inform the public health community by quantifying how much a weight loss intervention with tailored feedback improves diet quality. This work is vital to developing interventions which can achieve Healthy People 2020 objectives related to increasing the contributions of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to the total diet as well as decreasing the consumption of added sugars and saturated fats. Aim 1 will assess how a weight loss intervention performs in producing changes in diet quality from baseline to 6-months and 6- to 12-months. In Aim 2, the relationship between change in diet quality and change in cardiometabolic risk factors (i.e. weight status, blood pressure, and waist circumference) from baseline to 6 months and from 6- to 12-months will be quantified among all participants. A sub-aim is to explore the components of diet quality change adopted by individuals and which components result in greater decreases in risk factors. Exploratory Aim 3 will examine the relationship between calculated diet quality scores and participants’ perceived diet quality as well as the relationship between calculated changes in diet quality score and how participants perceived their diet quality changed over time. Fellowship training will enable me to increase my nutritional epidemiology knowledge and knowledge of factors related to the development of obesity and chronic disease. I will also learn how to support behavior change addressing those factors and increase the sophistication and rigor of my critical thinking and analytic skills. This training will provide valuable opportunities for the presentation of research at conferences and submission to peer-reviewed journals and allow me to gain experience working with a multidisciplinary team. This research will serve as a steppingstone to pr...