Study Examines Body Weight and Health
How does body weight impact your health, life, and lifestyle? The largest-ever prospective study of the relationship between weight and health, REWARD-- the Registry of Weight and Related Disorders hopes to provide the answers to that question. The REWARD Project expects to enroll and track the health of up to 200, 000 patients over a period of at least three years. A clinical registry eventually will contain a wealth of information about weight, height, quality of life and lifestyle about patients who participate in the study.
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Analysis of project data is expected to yield a wealth of information about the health effects of overweight and obesity, in a way not unlike the way that the Framingham Heart Study provided invaluable information about the causes of cardiovascular diseases in 5,000 residents of Framingham, Massachusetts who have been followed for the last 5 decades of the 20th century. Dr. James M. Rippe, Director of the REWARD Project Coordinating Center, Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Founder and Director of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute believes that the "study will have national implications for how we manage obesity, a growing epidemic that affects 97 million Americans." |
"Just as the Framingham Study changed our views on cardiovascular disease, we expect the REWARD Project to uncover new information that will change perceptions about weight, the health effects of overweight and obesity, and strategies for weight management. We are interested not only in following overweight and obese patients, but also the typical American over the age of 20 who gains one or two pounds every year."--Dr. Peter W. F. Wilson, REWARD Project Principal Investigator, Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) Boston University School of Medicine, and Director of Laboratories Framingham Heart Study. |
The REWARD Project will enable researchers to gain a better understanding about how changes in weight affect health risks including heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
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Participants in the study will be required to complete a questionnaire at the start of their enrollment. The questionnaire takes about 30 minutes to complete. They will then be asked to update information 3 months later and annually for the next three years.
The project is an observational study that will collect information about patients. However the study will not involve any interventions, treatments, or efforts to affect the weight or health of participants.
Who Can Participate?
To become a part of this study patients must enroll through their participating physicians. If your physician is not a participant, ask her to become a REWARD investigator.
Physicians are encouraged to become REWARD investigators and enroll patients over 18 in the study. Patients of any weight, and in any state of health (with the exception of pregnant women) are welcome to participate, although overweight individuals are targeted in recruitment efforts. Women who become pregnant after enrollment will be allowed to continue to participate in the project.
Patients will submit their initial information to their physicians. Follow up will be by mail, fax, or online at the REWARD Project web site. Registered participants will be able to access personalized health information at the web site.
Physicians will have routine reports summarizing all patient data available to them. Also available to REWARD investigators will be online capabilities to access information about their patients which they will be able to compare with summarized data about other patients enrolled in the study.
For more information physicians and patients can call toll-free 1-877-71REWARD (877-717-3927) or visit the REWARD Project web site.
Information Source: PRNewswire
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