Cooking Classes as a Family-based Intervention for Weight Reduction: Effects on Dietary Quality and Weight Management in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates)

Overview

The goal of this quasi-experimental interventional study is to learn if healthy cooking classes for home cooks can improve weight management and dietary quality among Emirati adults with overweight or obesity living in Abu Dhabi. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does participation in the culinary medicine program reduce body weight over time? * Does the intervention improve diet quality and increase compliance with healthy home-cooked meals? * Does the intervention improve health measures such as waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and heart rate? * What are the experiences and satisfaction levels of participating family members and trained home cooks? Participants will: * Enroll in a 3-month family-based nutrition intervention program * Receive meals prepared by home cooks trained in culinary medicine through the ICCA program * Complete assessments before the intervention, during the intervention, and 3 months after completion * Undergo measurements including weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and heart rate * Complete questionnaires about diet quality, meal habits, and overall program experience

Interventions

• Behavioral Culinary Medicine Healthy Cooking and Home Meal Implementation Program
  This intervention consists of a 4-week structured culinary medicine training program delivered by ICCA to designated household home cooks. The training includes theoretical nutrition education and practical cooking sessions focused on healthy meal preparation techniques aimed at reducing chronic disease risk. Following completion of training and certification, home cooks implement these techniques over a 3-month period by preparing and providing healthy home-cooked meals for participating househ

Primary outcome measures

• Weight Status (Body Weight) [Time frame: Baseline (immediately after home cook certification and before intervention), Mid-intervention (6 weeks), and Post-intervention (3 months after intervention start).]

Secondary outcome measures (7)

• Waist Circumference [Time frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.]
• Body Fat Percentage [Time frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.]
• Blood Pressure [Time frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.]
• Heart Rate [Time frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, and 3 months.]
• Compliance with Home-Cooked Meal Consumption [Time frame: Every week for 3 months]
• Frequency of home-cooked meal consumption. [Time frame: every week for 3 months]
• Participant Experience and Satisfaction [Time frame: End of intervention (3 months).]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Emirati
• Based in Abu Dhabi
• Home cooked meals prepared by full-time home cooks who are certified in the ICCA Culinary Medicine course (post 4 weeks cooking training)
• Certified home cooks are residing with participant during the training and intervention
• Aged between 18 years and 60 years
• BMI between 28-40 kg/m2
• Participant and cooks being able to provide informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Body weight exceeding 220 kilograms at the time of recruitment
• Undergoing treatment for serious illnesses (active cancer), planned for surgery, interventional management, and immunomodulation
• Undergone surgery within 3 months prior to study recruitment, including bariatric surgery
• Enrolled in other lifestyle intervention programs

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

N/A

Model

Single group

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Prevention

Study locations

United Arab Emirates · 1 center

• Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi — Abu Dhabi

Publications

• Vaishya R, Misra A, Vaish A, Ursino N, D'Ambrosi R. Hand grip strength as a proposed new vital sign of health: a narrative review of evidences. J Health Popul Nutr. 2024 Jan 9;43(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s41043-024-00500-y. PMID 38195493
• Global Diet Quality Project: Diet Quality Questionnaire. https://www.dietquality.org/.
• Davidson LE, Wang J, Thornton JC, Kaleem Z, Silva-Palacios F, Pierson RN, Heymsfield SB, Gallagher D. Predicting fat percent by skinfolds in racial groups: Durnin and Womersley revisited. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Mar;43(3):542-9. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181ef3f07. PMID 20689462
• World Health Organization: Waist circumference and waist-hip ratio: report of a WHO expert consultation. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241501491.
• Hasan B, Thompson WG, Almasri J, Wang Z, Lakis S, Prokop LJ, Hensrud DD, Frie KS, Wirtz MJ, Murad AL, Ewoldt JS, Murad MH. The effect of culinary interventions (cooking classes) on dietary intake and behavioral change: a systematic review and evidence map. BMC Nutr. 2019 May 10;5:29. doi: 10.1186/s40795-019-0293-8. eCollection 2019. PMID 32153942
• Alpaugh M, Pope L, Trubek A, Skelly J, Harvey J. Cooking as a Health Behavior: Examining the Role of Cooking Classes in a Weight Loss Intervention. Nutrients. 2020 Nov 28;12(12):3669. doi: 10.3390/nu12123669. PMID 33260523
• Lillquist S, Ruiz Barnecett G, Flexman N, Mikati N. Recipes for Health: A Community-Based Nutrition and Culinary Intervention. Cureus. 2022 Dec 8;14(12):e32322. doi: 10.7759/cureus.32322. eCollection 2022 Dec. PMID 36627985
• Thomas OW, Reilly JM, Wood NI, Albin J. Culinary Medicine: Needs and Strategies for Incorporating Nutrition into Medical Education in the United States. J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2024 May 5;11:23821205241249379. doi: 10.1177/23821205241249379. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec. PMID 38711830

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07675148 · DOH/ADHRTC/2025/1895

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗