A longitudinal study to determine the effect of gene-based personalised diet and physical activity advice on adiposity indices in university students.
The study uses a randomised controlled design; data for all variables (participant characteristics, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), body fat percentage (BF%), healthy eating motivation, dietary intake and physical activity) will be collected initially from participants at St Mary's University during September and October 2019. Participants will be genotyped, stratified randomisation (based on genotype and BMI) will be used to allocate participants to three different groups (1. Control: no advice, 2. Non genetic personalised advice: dietary and physical activity advice based on reported dietary intake and physical activity 3. Genotype- based personalised advice: dietary and physical activity advice based on genotype, reported dietary intake and physical activity. Following allocation to groups participants in groups 2 and 3 will receive appropriate dietary and physical activity advice via email (appendix a) and all participants will complete the healthy eating motivation questionnaire for a second time. In April/May 2020 follow up variables (smoking status, weight, BMI, WC, BF%, healthy eating motivation, dietary intake and physical activity) will be measured again. These follow up variables will be measured every September and April/May until September 2022. After each follow up participants in groups 2 and 3 will be resent their dietary and physical activity advice and updated information based on their reported dietary intake and physical activity.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
400
Following allocation to groups participants will receive appropriate dietary and physical activity advice based on their genotype via email
Following allocation to groups participants will receive appropriate dietary and physical activity advice based on their reported intake, BMI and activity via email
Body weight in kg
Weight will be measured to the nearest 0.1 kg
Time frame: 3 years
Body fat percentage
Body fat percentage will be measured to the nearest 0.1%
Time frame: 3 years
Body mass index in Kg/m2
calculated from measured height and weight
Time frame: 3 years
Dietary intake
using a four day food diary collected using a food diary and nutritional analysis app (Libro, 2018)
Time frame: 3 years
Physical activity
using the Epic Physical Activity Questionnaire (EPAQ2) (Wareham et al., 2002)
Time frame: 3 years
Participants motivation to eat healthily
measured using the Healthy Eating Motivation Score (Naughton et al., 2015)
Time frame: 3 years
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