Pounds off with empowerment (POWER): a clinical trial of weight management strategies for black and white adults with diabetes who live in medically underserved rural communities.

Objectives: We evaluated lifestyle interventions for diabetic persons who live in rural communities.

Methods: We conducted a 12-month randomized clinical trial (n = 152) of "intensive-lifestyle" (modeled after the NIH Diabetes Prevention Program) and "reimbursable-lifestyle" (intensive-lifestyle intervention delivered in the time allotted for Medicare reimbursement for diabetes education related to nutrition and physical activity) interventions with usual care as a control.

Results: Modest weight loss occurred by 6 months among intensive-lifestyle participants and was greater than the weight loss among usual-care participants (2.

Successful recruitment and retention strategies for a randomized weight management trial for people with diabetes living in rural, medically underserved counties of South Carolina: the POWER study.

We evaluated the feasibility of recruiting overweight adults with diabetes, living in rural, medically underserved communities, to a weight management intervention consisting of a 12-month clinical trial of two weight management programs and usual care. The sampling frame consisted of adults ages 45 years and older with clinically diagnosed diabetes from two community health centers. The recruitment process included medical record review, prescreening telephone call, two screening visits, and a randomization visit.