Stress Management-Augmented Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention for African American Women: A Pilot, Randomized Controlled Trial

The relationship between chronic stress and weight management efforts may be a concern for African American (AA) women, who have a high prevalence of obesity, high stress levels, and modest response to obesity treatment. This pilot study randomly assigned 44 overweight/obese AA women with moderate to high stress levels to either a 12-week adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Balance intervention augmented with stress management strategies (Lifestyle + Stress) or Lifestyle Alone. A trend toward greater percentage of baseline weight loss at 3-month data collection was observed in Lifestyle + Stress (-2.7 +/- 3.6%) compared with Lifestyle Alone (-1.4 +/- 2.3%; p = .17) and a greater reduction in salivary cortisol (Lifestyle + Stress: -0.2461 +/- 0.3985 ng/mL; Lifestyle Alone: -0.0002 +/- 0.6275 ng/mL; p = .20). These promising results suggest that augmenting a behavioral weight control intervention with stress management components may be beneficial for overweight/obese AA women with moderate to high stress levels and merit further investigation with an adequately powered trial.