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HealthPartners recruiting participants for a study to help people maintain weight loss
July 9, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – HealthPartners Research Foundation is recruiting participants for their weight loss maintenance study, Keep It Off. The study is open to anyone who has lost 10 percent of their body weight in the last year, for example, 20 pounds if you originally weighed 200.
According to the CDC, the prevalence of obesity in America has risen from 15 percent to 32.9 percent since the mid-seventies. People from racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by this obesity epidemic. Being obese or overweight greatly increases the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other health risks. Even losing moderate amounts of weight can help prevent these health conditions. The Keep It Off study will be testing two different programs for helping adults who have lost weight to keep it off over the long term, which will help reduce the chances of developing these health conditions in the future.
"Though many people lose weight quite successfully, research shows that people typically regain most of the weight lost within two years," said Nancy Sherwood, PhD, the study's principal investigator. "This study seeks to identify the most successful methods to help people maintain the weight they have lost so they can continue to improve their health."
The HealthPartners Research Foundation received a $1.75 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct the study. For more information, e-mail keepitoff@healthpartners.com or call 952-967-6760.
HealthPartners Research Foundation
HealthPartners family of care includes HealthPartners Research Foundation (www.hprf.org). Conducting about 250 research projects each year, the Foundation is dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge through research to improve the health of our members and the community.
About HealthPartners
Founded in 1957, the HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) family of healthcare companies serve more than one million medical and dental health plan members nationwide. It is the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the nation, providing care, coverage, research and education to improve the health of members, patients and the community. For the third year in a row, HealthPartners is rated one of the best commercial health plans in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, NCQA's "America's Best Health Plans 2007" and is ranked "Highest in Member Satisfaction among Commercial Health Plans in the Minnesota-Wisconsin Region" by J.D. Power and Associates.
Contact: 952-883-5301
Cell: 612-247-9119
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