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April 7 — Professor publishes study on postpartum intervention
Leigh Ann Simmons, a professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, published “A randomized digital behavioral intervention for prenatal and postpartum weight outcomes in women with overweight or obesity: The GROWell trial” in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. This is the primary paper from the NIH-funded randomized trial of Goals for Reaching Optimal Wellness (GROWell), a digital intervention to improve perinatal and postpartum diet quality in women entering pregnancy with overweight or obesity. Leigh Ann and her team found no differences in gestational weight gain or postpartum weight retention between the educational attention control and the intervention. Both groups had lower rates of weight gain and weight retention compared to averages in the U.S. and several Western European countries, suggesting the need to further investigate text-based educational support on weight and other perinatal health outcomes. School of Nursing co-authors include HEAL Lab project scientist, Jennifer Phipps, ReACH fellow Paige Gilliland and Assistant Professor Victoria Keeton.