# Leveraging behavior change, social support and mHealth to advance early life obesity prevention-Adminstrative Supplement

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2021 · $62,570

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
There is growing recognition that the first two years of life are a critical period for the prevention of obesity and
promising behavioral targets have been identified, including increased intake of fruits and vegetables and
decreased intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), each of which is associated with parental diet, parental
feeding practices, parental perception of infant temperament/behavior and having been breastfed. While the
number of behavioral interventions targeting this age group has substantially increased in the last ten years,
several critical gaps remain. First, each of the five published trials that focused on the quality of the diet in late
infancy delivered multicomponent prevention packages, clouding our knowledge of which intervention strategies
were effective. Second, important social changes have not been incorporated into study designs, namely the
increased participation of women in the labor force and the convergence of the traditional roles of mothers,
fathers, and grandmothers; interventions that target multiple caregivers are lacking. Third, mobile technologies
have been shown effective at improving a variety of health behaviors among older children and adults, but have
been underutilized in existing early life obesity prevention trials. I seek to fill these gaps and become a lead
researcher in the field of early life obesity prevention, but require additional training. The NIDDK
Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will provide me protected time to seek this training
and develop the skills necessary to implement the proposed research. My short-term training goals are
to develop scientific and technical skills in: (1) the systematic construction of evidence-based behavioral
trials; (2) complex theories of social support; (3) mobile technologies for health interventions (mHealth);
and (4) independent, investigator-initiated R-grants. I have developed a strong training plan and mentoring
team, which includes leading researchers in each of these areas; researches with demonstrated NIH-funding
and extensive mentoring experience. For the research plan, I propose “Growing Healthy Together,” a mHealth
factorial screening experiment that will actively intervene with multiple caregivers and will utilize recent advances
in the systematic design of behavioral interventions, which will allow for the isolation of intervention component
effects. Using a 24 factorial design, 150 families, stratified on baseline maternal breastfeeding, will be randomized
to receive a core intervention of standard nutrition education plus up to 4 intervention components: 1) text
messaging reinforcement and feedback, 2) enhanced intervention engagement via incentives, 3) enhanced
partner social support, and/or 4) training in infant behavior. The aims of Growing Healthy Together are to
determine the set of intervention components that improve: 1) infant diet at 12 months, 2) change in caregiver
diet between 3-12 months and 3) chan...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10435102
- **Project number:** 3K01DK111793-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Heather Wasser
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $62,570
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10435102

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10435102, Leveraging behavior change, social support and mHealth to advance early life obesity prevention-Adminstrative Supplement (3K01DK111793-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10435102. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*