# EFFECTIVENESS OF ENHANCED FAMILY-BASED OBESITY TREATMENT

> **NIH NIH R01** · STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO · 1993 · $160,166

## Abstract

The proposed study is designed to determine the effects of
including mastery criteria for teaching eating and exercise
behavior change as part of a family-based treatment program for
childhood obesity.  Behavioral programs for childhood obesity
specify the target behavior to be changed and arrange reinforcement
contingencies for these changes.  However, there is still
considerable variability in the extent to which children learn
these new eating and exercise behaviors, and consequently
considerable variability in the weight losses achieved.

This study assesses the effects of introducing mastery criteria,
in which a child and parent will progress through the program at
the rate he/she has mastered the material, and demonstrated the
desired behavior change.  This Paced/Mastery program will be
compared to a fixed-pace/Non-mastery Control group, which
constitutes the conventional treatment protocol, and a Paced/Yoked
Control group, in which progress through the program is dependent
on the progress of a child or parent in the Paced/Mastery group.

It is predicted that children and their parents that are provided
with mastery criteria will show better learning and retention of
the written material and the behavioral skills than subjects in
the two control groups.  In addition, weight losses in the three
groups should be different, with the weight changes showing the
same pattern of results as the behavioral skills.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2198934
- **Project number:** 7R01HD023713-06
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO
- **SAM.gov UEI:** LMCJKRFW5R81
- **Principal Investigator:** Leonard H Epstein
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $160,166
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 1989-04-01 → 1995-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2198934

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2198934, EFFECTIVENESS OF ENHANCED FAMILY-BASED OBESITY TREATMENT (7R01HD023713-06). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2198934. Licensed CC0.

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