# A Coordinated Parent/Child Dyad Weight Loss Intervention: Dyad Plus

> **NIH NIH R21** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $201,094

## Abstract

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in youth is emerging as a global health concern, necessitating
clinical interventions to treat obesity through promotion of lifestyle modification. Interventions in adolescents
have demonstrated improvements in healthy eating and physical activity, with only modest weight loss
outcomes. As a result, there is growing interest in developing strategies to enhance effectiveness of clinical
interventions, especially those targeting adolescents who have the highest rates of obesity and dropout from
treatment. Targeting family members to treat obesity in youth can be an effective approach, but adherence to
family treatment can be sub-optimal despite research suggesting that parent-child interventions can be more
effective than treatment programs that focus primarily on the child. We propose to develop a coordinated
care model and assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness relative to standard care.
The proposed study will leverage two successful weight loss programs administered at the Wake Forest
Baptist Medical Center: Brenner Families in Training (Brenner FIT) and By Design. Brenner FIT is a
family-based pediatric weight management clinic for youth 2-18 years old referred by a physician for
overweight or obesity.11-14 By Design is an adult (>18yrs) weight loss clinic that includes tailored dietary and
physical activity behavioral counseling. Our preliminary data suggest that most adolescent youth who enroll in
Brenner FIT have at least one adult caregiver who is eligible and would benefit from enrollment in By Design.
Therefore, we propose the development of a coordinated program (Dyad Plus) that would be a theoretically-
based, coordinated approach designed to facilitate self-monitoring, positive communication, joint
problem solving, and social support to increase physical activity, healthy eating, and weight loss
relative to a non-coordinated approach or Brenner FIT alone. We will randomize 45 parent/adolescent
Dyads to one of three conditions (n=15 for each); Brenner FIT only, Dyad where the child and parent both
enrolled simultaneously in the age appropriate program, or Dyad Plus where the child and parent both
enrolled simultaneously, but with the coordinated component. The study will achieve the following aims:
Specific Aim 1: Develop a coordinated intervention for adolescents and adults with obesity co-enrolled in the
 Brenner FIT and By Design weight loss clinics.
Specific Aim 2: Pilot the coordinated intervention in adolescent/caregiver dyads to establish the feasibility of
 the intervention in terms of accrual, retention, and adherence.17
Specific Aim 3: Establish costs associated with the implementation of Dyad Plus relative to delivering By
 Design and Brenner FIT without the coordination component.
The proposal is significant, as it addresses a pressing chronic disease (obesity) in an underserved population
(adolescents) and would be the first to develop a coordinated adolescent/adul...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9895396
- **Project number:** 1R21HD101036-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Justin Brian Moore
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $201,094
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-01-10 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9895396

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9895396, A Coordinated Parent/Child Dyad Weight Loss Intervention: Dyad Plus (1R21HD101036-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9895396. Licensed CC0.

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