Photo: Bryan Goodchild
A big-scale trial at UMass Chan Medical School will assess the effectiveness of a digital life-style change intervention for sufferers utilizing GLP-1 therapies to handle weight problems, diabetes or heart problems.
The examine will launch the Lifestyle Change Implementation Research Network Collaborating Center at UMass Chan’s Prevention Research Center, funded by way of a four-year, $2 million award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The venture is co-led by Jamie Faro, PhD, assistant professor of inhabitants & quantitative well being sciences and Stephenie C. Lemon, PhD, the Barbara Helen Smith Chair in Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, professor of inhabitants & quantitative well being sciences, chief of the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine and co-director of the Prevention Research Center at UMass Chan.
“We’re going to look at what patients using GLP-1s are experiencing from early on in their journey, including changes in physical activity, diet, skeletal muscle mass, side-effect management, medication adherence and quality of life,” Dr. Faro mentioned. “We are hopeful this study addresses how lifestyle change interventions can impact these areas when implemented alongside patient’s medication.”
Enrollment within the examine will begin in early 2026, with a give attention to sufferers within the Worcester space. The examine will enlist 220 members, utilizing the digital life-style change program Noom Weight and Noom’s GLP-1 Companion, designed to fulfill the wants of individuals utilizing GLP-1 therapies, in contrast with commonplace care. Those members in requirements care will probably be supplied the choice to obtain the intervention on the finish of the examine.
Participants in each teams will obtain a wearable system to trace their bodily exercise over eight months and will probably be requested to finish well being and lifestyle-related questionnaires and dietary remembers. Dietary assessments will probably be led by co-investigator Sabrina Noel, PhD, RD, affiliate professor of biomedical and dietary sciences and the director of the Center for Population Health and the Health Assessment Laboratory at UMass Lowell.
“There needs to be more scientific evidence on how lifestyle change interventions can support patients’ needs in real-world settings,” Faro mentioned. “The team laid the groundwork for this project by conducting pilot projects in UMass Memorial Health clinics, funded by the UMass Chan Ambulatory Research Consortium and the Mel Cutler pilot award in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences.”
The venture may even look at life-style change implementation throughout a number of ranges, together with implementation with well being care methods and suppliers and payors.
“We want to establish evidence that can be applicable in other contexts that helps patients understand and engage in these necessary lifestyle interventions,” Dr. Lemon mentioned. “Otherwise, we’re going to have a population of GLP-1 users who lose weight but lose their muscle mass or have other issues that could be helped with lifestyle interventions, or who come off these meds and need additional support as they regain weight.”
UMass Chan is one among 4 funded websites to obtain a Lifestyle Change Interventions Research Network Coordinating Center Special Interest Project award from the CDC. The others embody the University of Utah, University of Pittsburgh and University of South Carolina. The websites are conducting their very own particular person tasks, every centered on filling proof gaps recognized by the CDC, in their very own communities and states.
The new heart at UMass Chan will work with the CDC’s Coordinating Center and different Prevention Research Centers within the nationwide community to advance analysis and follow, selling sustainable, evidence-based life-style change interventions and reductions in weight problems, diabetes, heart problems and different continual circumstances.
“The goal of the network is to bring together researchers and practitioners from across the country who are interested in this field, with a goal of building knowledge and capacity for implementing advanced weight loss interventions and potentially doing small scale additional research studies that fill evidence gaps in partnership between researchers and practitioners,” Lemon mentioned.
Other UMass Chan school concerned within the examine embody co-investigators Varun Ayyaswami, MD, assistant professor of drugs; Jung Ae Lee, PhD, assistant professor of inhabitants & quantitative well being sciences; Ben Gerber, MD, MPH, professor of inhabitants & quantitative well being sciences; and Melissa Goulding, PhD’23, MS, assistant professor of inhabitants & quantitative well being sciences; and Jeevarathna Subramanian, MD, affiliate professor of drugs.