title: Design of lifestyle intervention trials to prevent excessive gestational weight gain in women with overweight or obesity.
abstract: The Lifestyle Interventions for Expectant Moms (LIFE-Moms) Consortium is designed to determine, in pregnant women with overweight or obesity, whether various behavioral and lifestyle interventions reduce excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) and subsequent adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes and obesity in offspring. The design and planning process of the LIFE-Moms Consortium is described.
  
  
  
  The LIFE-Moms Consortium is a collaboration among seven clinical centers, a Research Coordinating Unit, and the NIH designed to support each clinical center's conduct of a separate trial of a unique intervention. Specific common measures, procedures, and eligibility criteria are consistent across the seven trials allowing data to be combined in exploratory analyses and/or compared readily.
  
  
  
  Numerous committees and working groups were created to define common measures and outcomes during pregnancy and through 1 year postpartum, develop Consortium policies, and oversee progress of the trials. The primary outcome for the Consortium is excessive GWG. Secondary outcomes include maternal, neonatal, and infant anthropometric measures, physical activity, sleep, and complications of pregnancy and delivery.
  
  
  
  A multi-center consortium of independent, lifestyle interventions with common measures and outcomes may enhance the ability to identify promising interventions for improving outcomes in pregnant women and their offspring.
authors.affiliation: The George Washington University Biostatistics Center, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Clifton
authors.affiliation: The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
authors.forename: Alison G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Cahill
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital Malmö, Malmö, Sweden.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Franks
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Dympna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Phelan
authors.affiliation: Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pomeroy
authors.affiliation: Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Leanne M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Redman
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Horn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008019:Life Style; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D050177:Overweight / Q000517:prevention & control*; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D015430:Weight Gain