Pilot of Two CAM Tratments for Maintenance Wt Loss

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of obesity is at epidemic proportions, 60% of US adults are overweight or obese. Obesity contributes to chronic diseases-diabetes, CVD, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and osteoarthritis and to escalating health care costs. Weight loss can have a substantial impact on reducing these conditions. Substantial efforts have been made in developing effective short-term wt. loss programs using behavioral treatments. However, long-term maintenance of wt. loss continues to be problematic - many individuals regain the wt. lost within a year. Innovative intervention options are critically needed to help people successfully maintain weight loss and to fight the obesity epidemic. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches - mind-body, energy healing, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) approaches - may hold great promise for helping improve the maintenance of wt. loss. Despite long historical use, significant anecdotal and case report information on benefits and efficacy, plausible biologic mechanisms for action and great consumer interest, there is little data available on the evaluation of these CAM therapies for wt. maintenance or wt. loss. The goal of this study is to pilot test in a group of overweight-obese individuals the feasibility and acceptability and indications of efficacy of two CAM treatments, qigong, and acupressure-TAT, for improving long term maintenance of wt. loss. The design is a randomized, controlled 3-arm study: 1) Control, 2) qigong maintenance and 3) Acupressure-TAT maintenance, with 30 participants per group. All participants receive a standard 12-week behavioral wt. loss program. Following this, participants are randomized to receive the maintenance interventions and are followed for 6 months. Measurements occur at screening, baseline, and 12, and 24 post-randomization. Outcomes include: wt. change, diet, physical activity, self-reported use of the maintenance techniques, acceptability and satisfaction with the approaches as well as a variety of psychosocial parameters that may be mediators or moderated by the intervention (QOL, perceived stress, etc.). Information from this study will be used to develop a larger randomized trial to evaluate different maintenance approaches to improve long-term maintenance of wt. loss.