Nutrition Study Seeks Parent-Child Pairs Just for a Weekend

University Relations

Stavros Kavouras

Finding people to participate in research is tricky enough when just a few participants are needed and it's a short-term study. The experiment is announced, and candidates contact the coordinating staff to see if they fit the qualifications. The offer of some sort of reward encourages a bigger pool.

But what if the study is longer and larger? Say it stretches two and a half years and needs 2,000 participants, in pairs? Their time investment is modest, just one weekend. Even when compensated with gift cards, the study leader and assistants can take on only about 15 sets at a time. More specifically, that's 1,000 parent-and-child teams, and the project staff stands ready for them year-round, barring holiday weekends.

Maybe that's a good problem to have.

Stavros Kavouras, an associate professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation in the College of Education and Health Professions, recently began such a nutrition and hydration study with these parameters. He has a $600,000 grant from Danone Research to fund this 30-month project.

The first announcement came out a few weeks ago inspiring some families to sign up, while another announcement was made Sept. 9, but UA has a number of studies going on — the Human Performance Lab has several simultaneously — so Kavouras cannot simply trumpet a call for candidates monthly without it getting lost.

Part of the solution, he said recently, was an initial boost of publicity then schedule the subjects at their convenience which should distribute out evenly enough over the remaining months.

The occasional promotions are stating that the parent subject be between the ages of 20 and 50 while the child subject be between 3 and 13 years old. So which adult in two-parent households and which kid from sibling groups? The grown-ups just have to choose, Kavouras said, adding that if a family wants to be highly involved in the study, one parent could enroll with one child and the other with another.

His strong preference though is that the parent in the study be the one who "is mainly responsible — more than 50 percent — for feeding the family, does most of the shopping, spends the most time in the kitchen."

Prior to the participation, the volunteers will take a survey including medical histories.

"We want generally speaking healthy individuals," Kavouras said. They then return to their routines with food and drink diaries they are to fill out on Saturday and Sunday. All activities also must be recorded in the journal.

They'll also leave the initial interview with a bag of lidded specimen cups. Periodic urine samples are to begin on the Sunday of their weekend, with the jars returned to the lab on Monday.

Each of the 1,000 children and 1,000 parents will receive a $50 Wal-Mart gift card.

Kavouras was generous in an interview with some details but not everything. "You're still running the risk from the moment you start recording everything that people will end up eating differently" than usual and with their logs not fully accurate.

The study parameters also have that the pairs be in "general good health" and that with the moms it cannot allow breastfeeding or pregnant women.

Kavouras and his graduate assistants expect to end up with "a cross-sectional study to see what people eat and drink."

"We are looking at total caloric intake, micronutrient intake such as protein, fat and carbohydrate intake. We are particularly interested in total water intake and soft drinks consumption," he said.

The urine specimens are to measure "biomarkers," Kavouras said without being too specific.

Danone Research, which is funding the study, is a branch of the France-based multinational corporation Danone. Its U.S. division is Dannon Co., best known for yogurt. Danone also markets several brands of bottled water including Evian and Volvic, Kavouras said.

The protocol for the study has been approved by the UA Institutional Review Board for human subjects in research.