Danielle Jake-Schoffman
University of Florida, FL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Obesity affects over 40% of US adults, and many children get too little moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), exercise hard enough to raise the heart rate. Yet few practical programs help people or families change these habits.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Psychology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
obesity
weight loss
physical activity
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2029
What they work on
- Refine the FamilyCollab smartwatch app, which supports parent-child goal setting, shared real-time exercise and reflection, through two rounds of usability studies with 12 parent-child pairs.
- Test the feasibility and acceptability of FamilyCollab in a randomized pilot of 60 parent-child pairs, comparing it with a standard commercial smartwatch app on recruitment, retention and engagement over 12 weeks.
- Explore whether FamilyCollab changes moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, body mass index and family communication, support and cohesion after 12 weeks.
- Test whether the 52-week UTOOLS program, which includes a pre-visit video kickoff and ongoing texts and emails, helps more of 453 primary care patients lose over 3% of their weight than an educational control.
- Gather implementation data and test a model of engagement with online tools such as MyFitnessPal and support communities to inform future digital health interventions.
More about the research
These grants test digital tools, such as phone apps, smartwatches, free websites and text messages, that could support healthy weight and activity in everyday settings. One project targets families with pre-teen children, and the other targets adults seen in primary care.
Why it matters
Adults with overweight or obesity could gain a low-burden route to meaningful weight loss through their primary care clinics. This approach relies on free, existing online tools and largely automated messaging, which would ease adoption. Families with pre-teen children may benefit from an app that helps parents and kids exercise together. This could help prevent childhood obesity and the drop in activity seen during adolescence.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Rebecca Krukowski
University of Virginia, VA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test the effect of five lifestyle components on 12-month weight loss in 608 adults taking second-generation anti-obesity medications, using a 2x2x2x2x2 factorial trial. The components are an education session, phone coaching, and digital diet, activity and weight self-monitoring.
Matthew Haemer
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Public Health & Epidemiology
Compare BMI reduction between the family-inclusive Healthy Living Program and a recommended primary care counseling control in low-income Hispanic children with obesity across three age groups, 2-6, 7-12 and 13-16 years, in a randomized controlled trial.
Kerri Boutelle
University of California-San Diego, CA·Psychology
Compare Regulation of Cues (ROC), Family-Based Treatment, ROC plus calorie restriction and health education in a randomized trial. Measure changes in weight and overeating over 18 months in 280 children high in food cue responsiveness, the pull to eat in response to food cues.
The school
University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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