
Short- and Long-term Health Effects of a Residential Stay in a Danish Christmas Seal Home.
OverweightThe purpose of the study is: (1) to evaluate the short-term effects of a 10-week residential stay in a Danish Christmas Seal Home on health, physical fitness, physical activity level, learning, sleep and well-being; (2) to investigate the long-term effects 3 and 12 months after the stay; and (3) to examine whether a special effort involving a high-intensity activity/health education programme (FIFA 11 for Health) increases the effects on physical fitness and health knowledge, learning capabilities, sleep patterns, well-being and adherence to a physically active lifestyle compared to the standard programme.

Project Health: Enhancing Effectiveness of a Dissonance-Based Obesity Prevention Program
Overweight and ObesityThis project seeks to improve the effectiveness of a novel dissonance-based obesity prevention program that has reduced future BMI gain and overweight/obesity onset by (a) experimentally testing whether implementing it in single- versus mixed-sex groups, which should increase dissonance-induction that contributes to weight gain prevention effects, and (b) experimentally testing whether adding food response and attention training, which theoretically reduces valuation of and attention for high-calorie foods, increases weight gain prevention effects. This randomized trial would be the first to experimentally manipulate these two factors in an effort to produce superior weight gain prevention effects. A brief effective obesity prevention program that can be easily, inexpensively, and broadly implemented to late adolescents at risk for excess weight gain, as has been the case with another dissonance-based prevention program, could markedly reduce the prevalence of obesity and associated morbidity and mortality.

Overweight and Obesity and Puberty Development Cohort Study
Precocious PubertyOverweight and ObesityPrecocious puberty and childhood overweight and obesity are important public health problems that both had adverse effects, which including psychological symptom in childhood, short final height or reproductive dysfunction in adulthood, on children's physical and psychological development.The prevalence of precocious puberty and childhood overweight and obesity are both high, and a growing body of epidemiological studies suggested that there was a close relationship of childhood overweight and obesity with puberty development, especially in girls. However, the underlying mechanism between them is unclear. Existing evidence shows that the occurrence of precocious puberty and overweight and obesity are the result of interaction of multiple factors, which consists growth environment and genetics, and many previous studies provided that more overlapping genes existed between obesity and precocious puberty patients, suggesting that common genes may result in these diseases. Therefore, based on a case control study, which will investigate the associations between obesity pleiotropic genes and early puberty, the researchers will collect information related to obesity, growth environment factors and risk genes in this study to evaluate the relationships of these related factors and precocious puberty, and to further explore whether there exists biological interaction effects of these risk factors on sexual precocity. This project has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

Dietitian Online - Internet-based Dietetic Treatment Within Health Care Services
Overweight and ObesityThe project aims to investigate the effect of internet-based dietetic treatment (IDT) on patients, dietitians, and society. The project will show: If IDT is equivalent to traditional dietetic treatment with physical meetings Patients' attitudes to, and experiences of, meeting a dietician through video calls How the dietician's work environment and working methods are affected by IDT If there are subgroups of patients where IDT is more or less appropriate Health economic and environmental consequences of IDT The major shortage of dietitians leaves patients with non-communicable diseases (NCD) without qualified dietary treatment. In a pilot study, the investigators have shown that IDT has great potential to streamline healthcare and increase accessibility. In the project Dietitian online, the investigators will conduct an RCT with 400 NCD-patients allocated to either IDT or standard dietetic treatment to see if IDT affect treatment outcome and whether IDT is appropriate for everyone. Even though internet-based treatment (IT) increases rapidly in society, there is little knowledge about the patients' experiences and how healthcare personnel incorporates IT in their daily work. The investigators will conduct qualitative studies to meet this knowledge gap. General assumptions are that IT is beneficial for society, both economically and environmentally, but very few studies have been done. The project will incorporate a full health-economic evaluation, including environmental impact.

Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Anovulatory Disorders in Lean and Overweight Women
Menstrual Cycle AbnormalPCOS2 moreThe investigators would like to determine whether ultrasound features of the ovaries can be used to reliably diagnose different types of anovulatory disorders in women across all body types. The study will also try to establish whether ultrasound features of the ovary can reflect the degree of reproductive and metabolic problems that a woman with irregular or absent periods might be experiencing.

A Phase 1 Study to Evaluate EMP22 PD and EMP16 PK Versus Xenical® in Healthy Volunteers
Overweight or ObesityThis Phase I, active-controlled, randomised trial will be conducted in 2 parts. Part I aims to confirm the PD equivalence of EMP22 and Xenical® based on percent fecal fat excretion at steady state. EMP22 (also referred to as MR orlistat) has the same MR properties as EMP16 but lacks the acarbose component. Part II will explore the PK properties of EMP16 alone and vs. Xenical®. Part I will be conducted in a single-blind, cross-over fashion while Part II will have an open-label, fixed-sequence design. Healthy volunteers will be recruited to the trial.

A Virtual Cardiometabolic Health Program for African Immigrants: The Afro-DPP Program
Diabetes MellitusDiabetes Mellitus9 moreA pilot study titled "A Virtual Cardiometabolic Health Program for African Immigrants (The Afro-DPP Program) will be conducted to address the cardiometabolic of community-dwelling African immigrants who have multiple cardiometabolic risk factors including hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes, high cholesterol, and overweight/obesity. The proposed study will recruit a total of 60 participants and will use a non-equivalent control group design to test the effectiveness of the intervention at two African churches in the Baltimore, Washington, D.C. area. The two churches will be randomly assigned to the intervention or delayed intervention group. At the end of a 6-month follow-up period, the control church will receive the intervention (delayed control group). All participants will receive a Bluetooth-enabled digital scale (Omron Model: BCM-500) that measures body composition including Body Weight, Body Fat percentage, Visceral Fat, Skeletal Muscle percentage, Resting Metabolism and Body Mass Index. A Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure monitor (Omron Model: BP7250) will also be distributed to all participants. All participants will download the Omron Connect app which will allow the participants to sync participants' blood pressure readings and body composition readings into the app. The research team will access these readings to monitor study outcomes and participants progress during the follow-up period.

Preventing Weight Gain Among Those Who Decline Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment (STEADY)
Overweight and ObesityTo prevent weight gain while overcoming these common barriers to engaging in weight management interventions, we propose an intervention that prescribes self-weighing but does not prescribe changes in diet or physical activity behaviors or require attendance at didactic-focused meetings. The potential of self-weighing to promote weight management is supported both by self-regulatory theory and empirical research. Promoting self-weighing may activate participants' self-regulatory skills, leading to spontaneous decisions to reduce calorie intake or increase physical activity, thus preventing further weight gain. The proposed intervention will also provide individuals with text message-based feedback to promote continued self-weighing and to motivate engagement with evidence-based resources for weight management at a time when they may be more open to using these resources-e.g., after experiencing a small weight gain. The current proposal will investigate the feasibility and acceptability of this low burden self-weighing intervention in order to prepare for a fully-powered, pragmatic randomized controlled trial. We will enroll 40 patients with either obesity or overweight with a weight-related comorbidity and who have declined to participate in a comprehensive behavioral weight management program. Participants will be asked to weigh themselves daily via a "smart" scale that transmits weight data directly to the study team via the cellular network. Every-other week, participants will be sent text messages providing brief feedback encouraging continued self-weighing. Moreover, if a small weight gain is observed, participants will be sent text messages aiming to engage them in commercial or community-based evidence-based weight management resources. In a single-arm design, all enrolled participants will receive the intervention for 12 months and will complete assessments at 3 and 12 months to assess feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and trial design, while weight will be obtained from participants' Electronic Health Records (EHR). We will evaluate our success in meeting pre-specified metrics for trial feasibility and intervention acceptability outcomes, including intervention enrollment, intervention satisfaction, and obtainment of weight data abstracted from participants' EHRs. We will also evaluate the success of the intervention in promoting regular self-weighing and use of evidence-based weight management resources.

Determination of Insulin-stimulated Hepatic Glucose Uptake by PET-CT Measurements
NAFLDInsulin Resistance1 moreIn the absence of excessive alcohol consumption, increased levels of fat in the liver (>5%) are diagnosed as non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL). It has been shown that NAFL is strongly associated with impairments in metabolic health such as hepatic and whole-body insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is seen as the earliest hallmark in the development of type 2 diabetes. Insulin has two main effects on the liver: suppressing endogenous glucose production (EGP) and increasing glucose uptake. While the former has been extensively studied and is known to be impaired in NAFL, no studies have yet examined whether insulin-stimulated hepatic glucose uptake is affected by NAFL. Recent methodological developments allow us to visualize and quantify glucose uptake in any given tissue using dynamic Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with 18Fluorinated glucose tracer (FDG) during insulin stimulation. In the present study, we will in a first instance optimize the insulin-stimulated whole-body PET protocol and apply the dose as reported in the literature 4 megabequerels per kg of body weight (MBq/kg) (±8 mSv) in the first three subjects. It will then be evaluated whether the dose can be decreased in the remaining measurements. Another twelve individuals will then undergo the optimized dynamic PET protocol to assess insulin-stimulated hepatic glucose together with whole-body glucose uptake measures. Liver fat content and composition will be assessed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Fasted De Novo Lipogenesis (DNL) will also be measured by deuterated water. Additionally, a two-step clamp will be performed to measure whole-body insulin sensitivity and insulin-stimulated suppression of EGP. The identification of the contributing factors to insulin resistance during the development of NAFL is crucial in order to develop more effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders.

Semaglutide for the Reduction of Arrhythmia Burden in Overweight AF Patients
Atrial FibrillationOverweight and ObesityThe purpose of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility of a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial of semaglutide 2.4 mg subcutaneously once weekly on top of standard care compared to standard care alone.