An observational study in Obesity, Metabolic Disease and Eating Behavior, sponsored by University of Texas at Austin. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 24 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-10-25.
Sponsored by University of Texas at Austin · Observational
Due to the increased focus on education and changing lifestyle, college students are particularly susceptible to poor overall health and wellness due to inadequate sleep and poor dietary choices. This is particularly important because the behavioral choices college students make may affect their risk of chronic disease. This study will research these topics via an online survey, in person visit and stool sample.
It is important for college students to establish healthy habits during college because they are likely to stay with them throughout their lives. The transition to college has been identified as a critical period contributing to the rise in obesity rates. Several studies have shown that the initial transition to college is associated with rapid weight gain and the average weight gain in the first year of college ranges from 3.5 to 8.8 pounds. While decreased dietary fiber, fruits and vegetables and junk food consumption are among the dietary factors that have been linked to increased obesity rates in college students, little is known about the effect of eating patterns on health in this population. Furthermore, lack of sleep, smoking, binge drinking, and infrequent eating are all associated with negative health outcomes. Previous work with college age youth has found that several behaviors cluster together. The goal of the Online Survey portion is to expand on current findings, as well as examine the interrelationships of alcohol use, sleep, smoking, and eating patterns with adiposity and metabolic disease risk in a population of freshmen college students.
Eating frequency research has consistently found a negative association between the number of eating occasions (EOs) per day and adiposity, as well as metabolic disease risk in both youth and adult populations. Our group has shown that infrequent eating is linked to increased obesity measures, blunted insulin action, and deleterious lipid parameters in multiple populations of overweight Hispanic youth (8-18y). However, to date, no group has looked at the effect of eating frequency on adiposity and metabolic disease risk in a sample of overweight Hispanic college freshmen. In 2012, for the first time in history Hispanic high school graduates (69%) were more likely to be enrolled in college than Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW; 67%) and Blacks (63%) and last year Hispanic students represented 24% of freshman enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), Hispanics also showed the largest increase among all minority groups. Thus, the goal of the In-Person Visit is to examine the relationship between eating frequency and adiposity/metabolic disease risk in this extremely high-risk population of Hispanic freshmen and potentially identify interventions that may reduce this risk within such a crucial period of life.
The human body contains 100 trillion microbes, and microbial genes outnumber human genes 100:110. Over the past decade, interest in the complex ecosystem of gut microbiota has increased immensely and research has uncovered a relationship between gut microbiota, metabolic disease, and obesity. Both diet and obesity have been shown to alter the gut microbiota12,13. However, few studies have investigated how individual dietary components can affect the gut microbiota in humans. The Stool Sample portion of the study is an exploratory investigation of the relationship between dietary components and gut microbiota composition in college-aged Hispanic freshmen.
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This study's enrollment of 100 is below the median of 114 across 2,154 observational studies indexed under Obesity.
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For the survey portion of this study will be general in that participants must be currently enrolled freshmen students at UT Austin. Students can be male or female and of any ethnicity. Participants must be 18 years of age or older.
The In-Person Visit inclusion/exclusion criteria will be more extensive and include the following:
Ethnicity: This portion of the study will be limited to self-reported Hispanics because of their high risk of visceral adiposity and metabolic disorders.
Eating Frequency We will enroll half Infrequent Eaters (≤2 EOs per day) and half Normal Eaters (≥3 EOs per day). Eating frequency groups will be identified via the previous survey data and verified with 24-hour diet recalls.
BMI Status: We will include a natural selection of normal, overweight and obese students based on the Centers for Disease Control growth charts.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
College Students Habits and Obesity Risk
Examine the interrelationships of alcohol use, sleep, smoking, eating patterns, and physical activity with obesity (i.e., BMI parameters as measured by height in meters and weight in kilograms) in a population of freshmen college students
Time frame: 2013-2017
College student habits and type 2 diabetes risk factors
Examine the interrelationships of alcohol use, sleep, smoking, eating patterns, and physical activity with type 2 diabetes risk factors (i.e., glucose, insulin, insulin resistance as measured by fasting blood glucose) in a population of freshmen college students
Time frame: 2013-2017
College student habits and adiposity
Examine the interrelationship of alcohol use, sleep, smoking,eating patterns, and physical activity on adiposity (i.e., total body fat as measured by BodPod and visceral fat and liver fat as measured by MRI).
Time frame: 2013-2017
Stool Samples and Gut Microbiome
Exploratory investigation of the relationship between dietary components and gut microbiota composition (specifically microbial diversity) in college-aged Hispanic freshmen
Time frame: 2013-2017
College Habits and Circulating lipids
Examine the interrelationship of alcohol use, sleep, smoking, eating patterns and physical activity levels on lipids (i.e., total cholesterol, triglycerides, and very low-density lipoprotein as measured by fasting blood draw).
Time frame: 2013-2017
Plan to share: No — No individual data will be shared. Only aggregate data.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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