A Family-Based Weight Loss Intervention for Youth With Intellectual Disability (HealthU)

This is an interventional treatment trial for Obesity focused on measuring weight loss, nutrition, physical activity, lifestyle, intellectual disability, adolescence, families Read More

Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion criteria for the adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) will be:

1. Age 14-22 years
2. Clinically overweight or obese, as indicated by BMI guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3. Scores of ≤ 75 on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT) and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 2nd Edition to establish criteria for the presence of an intellectual disability
4. Living at home in a single- or two-parent family with no plans to leave home in the next year
5. Verbal ability and necessary behavioral/social skills to participate in a group classroom-based educational program (determined by clinical observation and judgment accomplished through a structured interview during enrollment)
6. Signed approval to participate by the adolescent's primary care provider (and by other specialists such as cardiologists or neurologists if the participant has a heart condition or neurological disorder).

Exclusion Criteria: Exclusion criteria will be:

1. Cardiac problems that preclude participation in moderate-to-vigorous-physical-activity (MVPA)
2. Insulin-dependent diabetes
3. An active seizure disorder not stabilized on medication
4. Non-ambulatory, i.e. uses a wheelchair, or orthopedic injuries/deformities that prohibit moderate walking and other exercise
5. Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
6. Prader Willi syndrome
7. Unwillingness to wear the accelerometer at screening or enrollment
8. Recent history of disruptive, inappropriate or dangerous behaviors (e.g., self-injury, aggression/injury to others, property destruction, and extreme and ongoing use of inappropriate language).