Dr. Melissa Napolitano, an associate professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at Milken Institute School of Public Health, will study whether a technology-based program can lead to weight loss among college students.
Dr. Napolitano and her colleagues plan to recruit 450 overweight students (determined by their Body Mass Index) from the George Washington University and the University of Massachusetts-Boston to enroll in the technology-based program for 18 months.
Students enrolled in the public health program, called Healthy Body Healthy U (HBHU), will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: Two will focus on weight loss, and the third will promote what Dr. Napolitano calls the “three pillars of health,” having a healthy mind, body and energy.
“Social support and monitoring are critical to any behavior change,” said Dr. Napolitano. “Students check Facebook periodically throughout the day and are consistently texting. We thought that delivering healthy lifestyle information through those two platforms, rather than having students log in to a separate website, would be really helpful.”
Read the GW Today article about the HBHU program and how you can participate in the 18-month weight loss study.