Encourage Healthy Families Study focuses on mothers, children at risk for diabetes

  • July 25, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gestational diabetes places a mother and her child at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. The Indiana University Diabetes Translational Research Center is conducting a study that evaluates healthy interventions to decrease that risk.

The Encourage Healthy Families Study compares programs focusing on nutrition and exercise that can help mothers and their children decrease their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Thirty families are participating, and IU researchers are seeking more families for the lifestyle intervention study.

The IU Diabetes Translational Research Center has completed several successful prevention studies for adults with prediabetes. But this study is unique because it targets mothers who had gestational diabetes or who now have prediabetes, and it includes their children who are between the ages of 8 and 15.

Gestational diabetes dramatically increases a mother’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life; this also applies to her children. However, earlier research has shown that individuals at risk for diabetes who lose 7 percent of their weight through healthier lifestyle choices can reduce that risk by up to 58 percent.

You may qualify for this study if you have one or more children between the ages of 8 and 15 and fit at least one of the following criteria: had high blood sugar during pregnancy, had a baby weighing 9 pounds or more at birth, or currently have prediabetes.

Participants are compensated for their time. To learn about this opportunity, call 317-278-0901 or email dtrc@iupui.edu.

Media Contacts

Mary Hardin

  • Indianapolis
  • Office 317-274-5456
  • mhardin@iu.edu