Dissemination of the Look AHEAD intensive lifestyle intervention in the United States Air Force: study rationale, design and methods

Background: Despite an increase in overweight and obesity similar to the civilian population, there have been few randomized controlled trials examining behavioral weight management interventions in the military settings.

Purpose: This paper describes the design, intervention development and analysis plan of the Fit Blue study, a randomized controlled behavioral weight loss trial taking place in the United States Air Force.

Design: This study compares two adapted versions of the efficacious Look AHEAD Intensive Lifestyle Intervention (ILI), a counselor-initiated condition and a self-paced condition. Also described are the unique steps required when conducting military-based health promotion research and adaptations made to the Look AHEAD intervention to accommodate the military environment.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first translation of the Look AHEAD ILI in the military setting and one of the first translations of the ILI in general. If successful, this intervention could be disseminated to the entire U.S. Military as this project is designed to overcome the barriers and utilize the facilitators for weight loss that are unique to a military population. Programs validated in military populations can have a major public health impact given that with 1.4 million active duty personnel, the Department of Defense is the nation's largest employer. However, while this intervention is designed for a military population and there are unique aspects of the military that may enhance weight loss interventions, the diversity of the study population should help inform obesity efforts in both civilian and military settings.