Managing gestational weight gain (GWG) offers lifelong health benefits in both mothers and their offspring (e.g., reducing risk of preeclampsia, development of metabolic syndrome, obesity, cardiovascular disease). Because overweight and obese pregnant women (OW/OBPW) often exceed GWG guidelines and have difficulty with managing weight, there is a critical need to identify effective weight management interventions for this population. An individually-tailored intervention that provides OW/OBPW with support for managing GWG on a weekly basis and adapts to their unique needs over pregnancy may be a highly promising way to prevent high GWG. We have synergistically integrated methods/key concepts from the behavioral sciences and control systems engineering to construct a framework for an individually-tailored, behavioral intervention (e.g., components of education, goal-setting, self-monitoring, and engaging in healthy eating/ physical activity [PA] behaviors) to control GWG in OW/OBPW. This intervention has several unique features: (a) individualized treatment to manage GWG on a weekly basis over pregnancy, (b) a validated differential equation model for energy balance to predict GWG trajectories over pregnancy and provide feedback in real- time to adapt treatment as needed, (c) e-health technology to promote self-monitoring and collect data on weight, dietary intake, PA, and psychological factors, and (d) control systems engineering to relate intensive data collected on each participant and dynamical systems modeling to optimize this intervention;in other words, manage GWG in OW/OBPW as effectively and efficiently as possible. The proposed research aims are to first, establish feasibility of delivering this individually-tailored intervention for managing GWG in OW/OBPW by conducting two studies to examine viability of delivering intervention dosages and component sequencing, procedures for self-monitoring of GWG, dietary intake, and PA with e-health technology mechanisms, randomization/retention/data collection procedures with treatment and control groups, and to establish user acceptability. Second, control systems engineering will be used to relate intensive data collected on each participant to a dynamical model that considers how changes in GWG responds to changes in energy intake, PA, and planned/self-regulatory behaviors. We will then make modifications to the intervention and identify a customized intervention plan for each woman;resulting in an optimized (effective and efficient) intervention. We will test the efficacy of this optimized intervention for managing GWG in OW/OBPW in a future randomized controlled trial. Our long-range goal is to make this intervention available to all pregnant women (via e- health technology) to improve the health of mothers and infants and impact the etiology of obesity and cardiovascular disease at a critical time in the life cycle. Thi research compliments the over-reaching goal of NIH to improve maternal/infant health and it is consistent with NHLBI's mission to promote research to reduce the burden of heart, lung, and blood diseases and their related comorbidities worldwide.

Public Health Relevance

Managing gestational weight gain (GWG) offers lifelong health benefits in both mothers and their offspring;however, overweight and obese pregnant women (OW/OBPW) have particular difficulty controlling GWG and therefore requires an intensive and hands-on approach. The proposed research aims to establish feasibility of delivering an individually-tailored intervention that adapts to the unique needs and challenges of OW/OBPW and will utilize control systems engineering to optimize this intervention;in other words, make this intervention manage GWG in OW/OBPW as effectively and efficiently as possible. This research compliments the over- reaching goal of NIH to improve maternal/infant health and it is consistent with NHLBI's mission to promote research to reduce the burden of heart, lung, and blood diseases and their related comorbidities worldwide.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL119245-02
Application #
8720059
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-HDM-Q (50))
Program Officer
Arteaga, Sonia M
Project Start
2013-08-15
Project End
2018-04-30
Budget Start
2014-06-01
Budget End
2015-04-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$324,208
Indirect Cost
$81,616
Name
Pennsylvania State University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Allied Health Profes
DUNS #
003403953
City
University Park
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
16802
Rauff, Erica L; Downs, Danielle Symons (2018) A Prospective Examination of Physical Activity Predictors in Pregnant Women with Normal Weight and Overweight/Obesity. Womens Health Issues 28:502-508
Freigoun, Mohammad T; Rivera, Daniel E; Guo, Penghong et al. (2018) A Dynamical Systems Model of Intrauterine Fetal Growth. Math Comput Model Dyn Syst 24:661-687
Guo, Penghong; Rivera, Daniel E; Pauley, Abigail M et al. (2018) A ""Model-on-Demand"" Methodology For Energy Intake Estimation to Improve Gestational Weight Control Interventions. Proc IFAC World Congress 51:144-149
Symons Downs, Danielle; Savage, Jennifer S; Rivera, Daniel E et al. (2018) Individually Tailored, Adaptive Intervention to Manage Gestational Weight Gain: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial in Women With Overweight and Obesity. JMIR Res Protoc 7:e150
Pauley, Abigail M; Hohman, Emily; Savage, Jennifer S et al. (2018) Gestational Weight Gain Intervention Impacts Determinants of Healthy Eating and Exercise in Overweight/Obese Pregnant Women. J Obes 2018:6469170
Guo, Penghong; Rivera, Daniel E; Savage, Jennifer S et al. (2017) State Estimation Under Correlated Partial Measurement Losses: Implications for Weight Control Interventions. Proc IFAC World Congress 50:13532-13537
Downs, Danielle Symons (2016) Obesity in Special Populations: Pregnancy. Prim Care 43:109-20, ix
Devlin, Courtenay A; Huberty, Jennifer; Downs, Danielle Symons (2016) Influences of prior miscarriage and weight status on perinatal psychological well-being, exercise motivation and behavior. Midwifery 43:29-36
Guo, Penghong; Rivera, Daniel E; Downs, Danielle S et al. (2016) Semi-physical Identification and State Estimation of Energy Intake for Interventions to Manage Gestational Weight Gain. Proc Am Control Conf 2016:1271-1276
Downs, Danielle Symons; Devlin, Courtenay A; Rhodes, Ryan E (2015) The Power of Believing: Salient Belief Predictors of Exercise Behavior in Normal Weight, Overweight, and Obese Pregnant Women. J Phys Act Health 12:1168-76

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