The Center for Engagement in Disability Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (CEDHARS) is pleased to announce the recipients of its FY23 pilot grant funding opportunity, “Inclusive Research in Health and Wellness in Adults or Children with Disabilities.”
Yumi Kim, Ph.D., Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Postdoctoral Researcher, is one of four recipients to receive funding for her research “Effects of Dietary Protein Intake and Resistance Training on Retention of Fat Free Mass During Weight Loss in Adults with Obesity: A Cohort of People with Mobility Limitations”.
CEDHARS’ overarching mission is to advance scientific discovery, translational research, education and engagement in the fields of disability health and rehabilitation sciences. This pilot program aims to support the advancement of disability health research, and this specific funding cycle intended on increasing the field of inclusion sciences, adapting traditional research to be inclusive of people with disabilities. Applications were highly competitive and were peer reviewed using the NIH scoring framework. Four proposals were chosen for $50,000 of funding.
Learn more and read the abstract for Dr. Kim’s project below.
Effects of Dietary Protein Intake and Resistance Training on Retention of Fat Free Mass During Weight Loss in Adults with Obesity: A Cohort of People with Mobility Limitations
• Principal Investigator: Dr. Yumi Kim, Postdoctoral Researcher, Heersink School of Medicine Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Drew Sayer Assistant Professor, Heersink School of Medicine Department of Family and Community Medicine; Dr. Jereme Wilroy, Assistant Professor, Heersink School of Medicine Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
This study is nested within an ongoing multimodal intervention (high protein [HP] diet and/or resistance exercise training [RT]) aimed at preserving fat free mass (FFM) during weight loss among adults with obesity (≥ 50 years old), using a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) design [NCT04014296]. The study protocol of the main trial was adapted for a cohort of people with mobility limitations to
1. examine the feasibility of a 16-week RT and HP diet program (separate and combined) for FFM retention during weight loss; and
2. obtain preliminary estimates of the first and second stages of intervention efficacy and their variances.
In this study, 15 adults with self-reported mobility limitations (based on the perceived difficulty of walking/climbing stairs and use of assistive devices) will participate in an 8-week self-directed RT intervention (1st stage). The response criteria at week 8 are a greater than 5.5% reduction in fat mass (FM) and less than 1.5% reduction in FFM. Participants meeting FM and FFM mass criteria will be identified as “responders” and continue with self-directed RT for the remainder of the study. Participants not meeting both criteria will be identified as “non-responders” and randomly assigned to either an intensified program with supervised RT or a combined program with HP supplements and supervised RT for the remaining 8 weeks intervention (2nd stage). All participants will receive a weekly, group-based, remotely delivered weight loss counseling session (State of Slim [SOS]) during the 16-week intervention, in addition to the RT and/or HP diet prescription. Outcomes include four domains of feasibility metrics (i.e., process, resources, management, and scientific outcomes). The scientific outcomes include body weight and composition (FFM, fat mass) using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and participant feedback via semi-structured interviews.
The long-term goal of this research is to inform the inclusion of cohorts of disability in multimodal interventions addressing diet and exercise. The feasibility component will explore general problem areas in the recruitment, enrollment, and engagement of the program among adults with mobility limitations and identify characteristics of those who have the greatest response to the program. Most importantly, this trial will allow for increased detail on all feasibility metrics to provide valuable information for the design and implementation of larger trials.