Are you pregnant? Or did you have a baby in the past month? Then this paid study may be for you!
The University of South Carolina Department of Exercise Science is conducting a study to examine how body weight, body fat, and sleep patterns change in the year after a woman gives birth to an infant (specifically among African American and White women).
Participation in the study involves 6 visits over a period of 10 months, and those who qualify can earn a total of $250 overall if all visits are complete!
What to Expect at Each Visit
Visits occur 6-8 weeks after birth, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months postpartum, and last between 30 minutes to one hour.
During your first visit (6-8 weeks after giving birth), you will be given a wrist and hip monitor to wear continuously for 7 days to monitor sleep and activity.
The next baseline visit will be on the 7th day, during which you will return the monitors, be weighed, and have a DXA scan. The DXA scan measures how much fat, muscle, and bone mass you have. During the scan, you lie down on the flat bed of the machine and an “arm” of the machine moves from your head to toe to scan your whole body. The scan takes no longer than 15 minutes. At this visit, you will also be asked to complete a few questionnaires about sleep quality, sleepiness, depression, self-esteem, stress, breastfeeding, smoking, food intake, etc.
Subsequent visits follow a similar format as the baseline, with wearing monitors for 7 days, filling out questionnaires, and DXA scans on alternating visits. All visits take place at the University of South Carolina Public Health Research Center (921 Assembly Street).
Risks/Discomfort
The exposure levels from the DXA x-ray unit are very low with no observable effects.
The hip and wrist monitors are made to be lightweight and unobtrusive, however they may take some getting used to. The wrist monitor is similar to a watch, with a real watch face with date and time. If you still feel uncomfortable after a few days of wearing one or both monitors, you can stop wearing them.
Payment to Participants
You will be paid a total of $250 in gift card for participating in this research study. You will receive $50 for finishing visits at each time point (baseline at 6-8 weeks after birth, 4, 6, 9, and 12 months). If at any point you want to discontinue your participation in the study you may, however, you will only be compensated for each completed visit.
How to Get Involved
This study is specifically geared towards women who have recently given birth (with the expectation of being ready to begin 6 weeks postpartum).
