Making healthy lifestyle change accessible for teens is goal of American Diabetes Association grant awarded to UB investigator

BUFFALO, N.Y. – It’s well-known that obesity and the cardiometabolic diseases that it can lead to continues to be a major concern among the nation’s teens, affecting more than 1 in 5. But while teens and families want to know how to eat healthier, that assistance can be hard to find.

Preventing diabetes by making healthy living tools easily accessible for adolescents is the goal of a new American Diabetes Association (ADA) grant awarded to an investigator at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

Amanda Ziegler, PhD, research assistant professor in the Primary Care Research Institute in the Department of Family Medicine in the Jacobs School, was awarded a three-year ADA grant titled, “Translating and testing an evidence-based, AI-powered mobile health care model integration into clinical practice for adolescent weight management and diabetes prevention.”

Using smartphone technologies that can be readily incorporated into primary care electronic medical systems, along with artificial intelligence-powered support tools, the project is designed to prevent and address adolescent obesity and subsequent cardiometabolic diseases by developing pragmatic approaches for adolescent patients.

“There’s a research gap showing that clinicians are sought after for nutrition advice, but they can be apprehensive about discussing it with patients because they either lack confidence or supportive tools for families,” says Ziegler, adding that the need to avoid stigmatizing patients can end up making clinicians avoid the topic altogether.

“Our goal is to get information in front of providers and patients in a way that’s digestible, not burdensome,” she adds “Our idea is that if all patients get the same initial screening surveys and providers are given patient-specific lifestyle change guidance, then counseling can be more effective and approachable in routine care.”

Ziegler’s project is an example of implementation science, research designed to more rapidly transition out of the discovery phase and into routine clinical practice, an emphasis of UB’s Primary Care Research Institute.

She is partnering with PreventScripts, a mobile health provider that conducts  lifestyle screening and treatment to improve cardiometabolic outcomes in adults. The UB project, called PrevenTeen, involves adapting these methods for adolescents, by utilizing community-based participation methods to ensure the program components -- smartphone app, remote monitoring tools, personalized goal setting and clinician-connected support -- are age-appropriate and focused on helping adolescents build healthy eating and lifestyle habits to reduce obesity and future diabetes risk.

“When we brought PreventScripts to market in family medicine ambulatory adult patients, we were able to help make clinically significant improvements across many cardiometabolic values with high patient satisfaction,” says Natalie Davis, MD, co-founder and chief medical officer of PreventScripts. “As a pediatrician, I am also passionate about the specific needs of youth. We are looking forward to working with UB researchers and the Buffalo community to learn the best ways of gaining both teen and parent trust and buy-in to help make healthy lifestyle changes accessible for all.”

Community partners, the local Buffalo practices where the teen-focused intervention will eventually be offered to patients through a randomized clinical trial, are UBMD Pediatric Endocrinology at Conventus, Niagara Street Pediatrics and Broadway Pediatrics.

The investigators will begin by organizing an advisory board that includes clinicians, teens and family members from partner clinics. Once the program is developed, the researchers will test it with a small group of clinicians and teens to ensure it is easy to use and engaging.

The project will conclude with a clinical trial of 72 teens with obesity who will receive the PrevenTeen mobile intervention or enhanced usual care control group to find out if the intervention has an evidence-based impact on obesity and cardiometabolic outcomes in teens.

UB co-investigators are Lucy D. Mastrandrea, MD, PhD, professor; Teresa Quattrin, MD, UB Distinguished Professor; and Sarah Ventre, MD, clinical assistant professor, all of the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School.