Weight Maintenance among Youth and Middle-Aged Women

描述(申请人提供)：这项申请是为了评估在今日成长研究(Guts)中的年轻人和护士健康研究II(NHS II)中的中年女性中保持体重和减肥的行为预测因素。很少有人能够保持体重，大多数人在青壮年和中年时体重会增加。此外，许多人试图减肥，但很少有减肥的人能够保持他们的减肥。人们对年轻人的减肥维持知之甚少。在过去20年中，超重和肥胖率急剧上升，突出表明有必要确定促进体重维持而不是增加体重的因素。虽然已经观察到一些饮食、行为和药物治疗方案可以促进减肥，但尚不清楚哪些策略促进了长期的体重维持，以及同样的因素是否有助于保持体重和减肥。我们将分析NHS II中10688名至少16岁的中年女性和64,492名未怀孕的中年女性的数据。我们将评估频繁锻炼是否预示着能够保持体重，而使用不锻炼的饮食策略不足以维持故意减肥。我们将确定使用减肥药、禁食和快速节食是否会降低保持体重的可能性，以及是否使用行为方法。例如有限的份量，增加了故意减肥的可能性。我们将评估这些关联的大小，以及它们是否因年龄组或体重状况(即体重不足、健康体重、超重或肥胖)而不同。由于肠道参与者是NHS II中女性的后代，在二次分析中，我们将评估母亲和她们的女儿的体重控制做法和体重变化是否相关。这项研究将具有很好的能力来检测适度的关联(例如，相对风险=1.4或=0.6)。在美国，超重和肥胖是严重的公共健康问题，因此确定成功保持体重和减肥的预测因素具有相当重要的意义。大多数研究都是在成年人中进行的，他们中的许多人几十年来一直在与体重作斗争，因此对年轻人和中年女性的研究将提供许多美国人需要的重要信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is to assess the behavioral predictors of weight maintenance and weight loss maintenance among young adults in the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) and middle-aged women in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II). Few people are able to maintain their weight, most gain weight during young adulthood and middle age. Moreover, many people attempt to lose weight, but few people who lose weight are able to maintain their loss(es). Little is known about weight loss maintenance among young adults. The dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity over the past two decades highlights the need for the identification of factors that promote weight maintenance instead of weight gain. Although some dietary, behavioral, and pharmacotherapy regimes have been observed to promote weight loss, it is unknown which strategies promote the long-term maintenance of weight and whether the same factors are helpful for weight maintenance and weight loss maintenance. We will analyze data from the 10688 individuals in GUTS who at least 16 years of age and 64,492 non-pregnant middle-aged women in the NHS II. We will assess whether frequent exercise predicts being able to maintain weight, whereas, using dietary strategies without exercise is insufficient to maintain weight intentionally lost. We will determine if the use of diet pills, fasting, and crashing dieting decrease the likelihood of maintaining weight and whether using behavioral approaches, .. such as limited portion sizes, increases the likelihood of maintaining weight lost intentionally. We will assess the magnitude of these associations and whether they vary by age group or weight status (i.e., underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obese). Since the GUTS participants are offspring of women in the NHS II, in secondary analyses we will assess whether the weight control practices and weight changes of mothers and their daughters are associated. This study will have good power to detect moderate associations (e.g., relative risk >= 1.4 or <= 0.6). Overweight and obesity are serious public health problems in the United States, therefore identifying predictors of successful weight maintenance and weight loss maintenance is of considerable importance. Most of the research has been conducted among adults, many of whom have been struggling with their weight for decades, thus studying both young adults and middle-aged women will provide important information that is needed by many Americans.