Category: Health Behavior & Nutrition Sciences
Foltyn Seminar Speaker Confronts Challenges of Weight Loss Disparities
October 24, 2022 Written by Colin Heffinger | Photos by Ashley Barnas
For over 30 years, controlled trials have provided evidence of two major findings Black women encounter in weight loss: they are losing 50% of the weight lost by white counterparts as well as 60% facing obesity in comparison to only 39% of white women. A professor who has dedicated her career to identify underlying reasons and potential solutions presented her research at the University of Delaware.
On Wednesday, October 12, The College of Health Sciences hosted its 7th annual Foltyn Seminar with a presentation by NiCole Keith, Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the Department of Kinesiology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Keith explained discoveries and lessons learned over the past two decades investigating reasons behind weight loss disparities Black women face throughout the country.
“Obesity is steeped in generations,” Keith stated. “Children grow up and emulate their parents’ behaviors. Asking them to change this at any point in their lifetime is incredibly hard. It isn’t just them – it’s their generation and culture.”
Keith has led research and programming through the creation of five different programs including SisterTalk, Soul Empowerment, Take Charge Lite, Healthy Me, and Addressing Place and People Microenvironments (APP-ME). From starting out as an intervention television series through SisterTalk, each program has organically evolved from its predecessor to better understand and meet the needs of Black women in the face of weight loss disparities.
“We learned so much throughout the execution of these programs,” Keith said. “We saw the importance of development for community partnerships, a user-centered design, and other factors such as cultural tailoring. Weight loss intervention is still very complicated, but it can result in other successes beyond weight loss.”
Additionally, the research added to an inspiring body of research that shows every 2 pounds of weight loss is associated with a 10% reduction in 3-year risk of hypertension and a 16% reduction in 3-year risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
Even though many doctors may declare that someone needs to lose a significant amount of weight, the evidence states that losing as little as 5 pounds can make a difference to help women become healthier and live longer. This can be substantially more impactful on motivation versus telling someone to lose nearly half of their body weight, especially since people are likely already feeling overwhelmed to try and be healthier.
Another critical lesson focused on how to motivate people from underrepresented groups to become a part of studies, which are predominantly done on white people.
“We need people of color to participate in this research,” Keith said. “It’s important that we change our messaging to help these women recognize the truth and the immediate threat. This leads to increased motivation and involvement.”
After her presentation, Keith participated in a Q&A session to provide further insight into her research and upcoming plans with her work.
“The best exercises for anyone to do are the ones they actually will do,” Keith emphasized. “It’s all about what someone is comfortable doing. Going to the gym might not be the answer. It’s better to find something that you enjoy or previously enjoyed and to recognize the impact of exercising no matter how small or short it is. Even if it’s just walking for ten minutes, for someone who hasn’t gone on a walk for years, that makes a huge difference.”
Looking forward, Keith is determined to continue her research and utilize recent societal changes to improve the programs further. Keith highlighted the “silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is the ability to provide our resources anywhere.”
“We can now record through Zoom and provide access across the country,” Keith said. “We’re also looking to use these tools to build and leverage social networks. It’s important that we find ways to help when clients are outside of the clinic, which consists of most of their time. If everyone you spend time with exercises, it’s more likely that you will too.”
The seminar has been supported by the generosity of Ted Foltyn and Kathi Hetrick Foltyn since February 2013 to deliver relevant information to UD’s campus and community about topics revolving around behavioral health, nutrition, wellness, and disease prevention. Ted and Kathi Foltyn, who were both UD graduates for the class of 1981, hope their annual seminars will help influence others in the community to give back to UD through similar contributions.
“There is significance in aligning research goals with client values,” Kathi Foltyn said in reflection of Keith’s presentation. “Understanding what is important to you as a researcher may not be important to clients even with ‘evidence’ that a change would be positive for their health. Clinicians must have awareness of the people and cues in their environment and how influential these are on a person’s decisions.”
Ted and Kathi Foltyn highlighted the value of Keith’s transparency about difficulties to perform weight loss research, based on social and emotional challenges she encountered. Her willingness to share successes and failures provides others with a realistic view of this type of research, which was especially important as much of the audience was composed of current students at the College of Health Sciences.
“We are thrilled with the outcome of this event,” Ted Foltyn said. “We want to recognize the terrific effort of Professor Jillian Trabulsi in helping make this lecture series a great success from recruiting an excellent speaker to creating an itinerary to maximize her time here. In addition, we are grateful for NiCole meeting in smaller groups with faculty and students to discuss their research and share her insights. The generosity of her time and interest in their work was greatly appreciated.”
Approximately 350 people including faculty, staff, students, and members of the community attended the presentation in-person as additional attendees were able to watch the seminar online. Recording of the seminar is accessible here.
