Weight Maintenance among Youth and Middle-Aged Women

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请旨在评估“今日成长研究”（GUTS）中的年轻人和“护士健康研究II”（NHS II）中的中年妇女体重维持和减肥维持的行为预测因素。很少有人能够保持体重，大多数人在青年和中年时体重增加。此外，许多人试图减肥，但很少有人减肥后能够保持他们的减肥效果。我们对年轻人如何维持减肥所知甚少。在过去的二十年里，超重和肥胖的流行率急剧上升，这突出表明有必要找出促进体重维持而不是体重增加的因素。虽然已经观察到一些饮食、行为和药物治疗方案可以促进体重减轻，但尚不清楚哪种策略可以促进体重的长期维持，以及相同的因素是否有助于体重维持和减肥的维持。我们将分析10688名16岁以上的大肠胃病患者和64492名未怀孕的NHS II中年妇女的数据。我们将评估频繁运动是否预示着能够保持体重，然而，使用不运动的饮食策略不足以维持有意减轻的体重。我们将确定使用减肥药、禁食和剧烈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……比如限制份量，增加了有意保持减肥的可能性。我们将评估这些关联的程度，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）而异。由于GUTS参与者是NHS II中女性的后代，在二次分析中，我们将评估体重控制实践和母亲及其女儿的体重变化是否相关。这项研究将有很好的能力来检测中度关联（例如，相对风险>= 1.4或<= 0.6）。超重和肥胖在美国是严重的公共卫生问题，因此确定成功维持体重和维持减肥的预测因素是相当重要的。大多数研究都是在成年人中进行的，其中许多人几十年来一直在与体重作斗争，因此研究年轻人和中年妇女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.