The first clinical trial to examine the effects of weight loss on mobility in overweight, older adults is underway in Winston-Salem as a collaborative project between health researchers at Wake Forest University (WFU) and the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina.
The five-year research study, titled the Cooperative Lifestyle Intervention Program (CLIP-II) and supported by the National Heart and Lung Institute and the National Institutes of Health, is designed to learn more about how physical fitness and weight control can promote disability-free years of life.
Administered from the WFU Reynolda campus, the study’s primary investigators are Dr. Jack Rejeski and Dr. Tony Marsh in the WFU Department of Health & Exercise Science. Dr. Rejeski describes CLIP-II as “the first clinical trial to examine the effects of weight loss alone on mobility in overweight, older adults.”
Since it is essential to the CLIP II study that the Weight Control Only group meet in a setting apart from the YMCA, The Shepherd’s Center of Greater Winston-Salem readily filled that need through the offering of its community meeting space.
And what a perfect match it is: according to Sam Matthews, Shepherd’s Center academic research and community coming together under the common mission to promote and support successful aging through health promotion programming for older adults.