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Introduction: Parents with poor mental health are less likely to engage in cognitively enriching parenting behaviors, such as reading and playing with their children. This, in turn, is associated with increased risk of obesity in the child and poor treatment outcomes for children enrolled in behavioral weight management. Parents and caregivers with obesity also have worse mental health and lower life satisfaction than their non-obese counterparts. Among parents with overweight and obesity who have a child with overweight/obesity, the relationship between parent mental health and cognitive enrichment provided in the home is unknown. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that higher depressive symptoms and lower subjective well-being scores among parents will be associated with less cognitive enrichment provided to children. Further, we hypothesize that these relationships will be moderated by the sex of the parent. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of baseline data from 452 parent-child dyads with overweight/obesity enrolled in a family-based behavioral treatment study for obesity. Depression symptoms and subjective well-being were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale and the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status, respectively. Cognitive stimulation was measured with the Cognitive Stimulation subscale of the Environmental Enrichment scale. Univariable relationships were assessed using Pearson correlations. Multivariable linear regression models were used to control for study site, parent characteristics (age, BMI, sex, race/ethnicity, education), child characteristics (age, and sex), and family characteristics (health insurance status and household income). Results: Higher depression symptom score was correlated with lower cognitive stimulation (ρ = -0.165, p < 0.001), whereas higher subjective well-being was associated with higher cognitive stimulation (ρ = 0.377, p < 0.001). These relationships were maintained even after controlling for covariates in the multivariable models, with each one-unit increase in depression symptoms associated with a 0.16 unit decrease in cognitive stimulation (95% CI -0.27 to -0.06, p = 0.003) and each one-unit increase in subjective well-being associated with a 0.04 unit increase in cognitive stimulation (95% CI 0.01, 0.07, p = 0.01). Parent sex did not moderate these effects. Conclusions: Mental well-being of parents and caregivers with overweight/obesity is associated with the degree of cognitive enrichment provided to the child in the home, though the effect sizes after controlling for covariates were modest. Thus, interventions targeting parental wellbeing offer a potential avenue to improve their child’s cognitive wellbeing and response to obesity treatment.

Introduction: Workplace wellness programs offer opportunities for decreasing obesity in adults. The effectiveness of such programs varies and is influenced by key intervention components (e.g. duration, intensity, content). We developed a multicomponent workplace wellness program, MyWay to Health (MW2H), which was adapted from an evidence-based weight loss intervention with demonstrated efficacy and meets the 2013 Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in adults. The purpose of this one-group pretest-posttest study was to evaluate program acceptability and effectiveness of MW2H on primary and secondary outcomes. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that MW2H would result in 1) clinically meaningful weight loss of ≥5%, and 2) improvements in cardiometabolic indices. Methods: During weeks 1-26, participants met privately with an interventionist for up to 24 weekly, 40-minute sessions, receiving training in eating and physical activity behavior change, self-regulation, and socioenvironmental strategies. During weeks 27-52, participants received maintenance support through phone calls, email, or in-person visits. Our primary outcome was percent weight loss. Secondary outcomes included improvement in BMI, waist circumference, HbA1c, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Outcomes were compared at baseline and 26 weeks; body weight only was measured at 52 weeks. Wilcoxin Signed Rank Tests were used to examine outcomes. Results: Participants (N=154) were mostly female (85%), White (75%), had a median age of 50 (Interquartile Range (IQR): 17) years, a median baseline BMI of 34.7 (IQR: 8.8), a median household income of $70,000 (IQR: $50,000), and 54% had a college degree or higher. Median number of in-person sessions attended was 19 (IQR: 4.0). Percent weight loss at 26 weeks (median [IQR]: 7.5% [6.8%]) was clinically meaningful, with 71% of participants achieving ≥5% weight loss. Statistically significant improvements in BMI, waist circumference, HbA1c, HDL cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p Conclusions: The MW2H workplace wellness program was acceptable to participants, evidenced by high program attendance, and resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in body weight and cardiometabolic indices. A majority of participants achieved ≥5% weight loss by 26 weeks, and nearly all participants for whom data was available maintained this level of weight loss at week 52. Additional research is needed to optimize intervention components, identify factors that contribute to weight maintenance, and examine MW2H effectiveness in a more diverse population.