Welcome to the UPBEAT trial!

Obesity is a major problem in modern society and we know that women who are heavy at the start of pregnancy can be at risk of almost every pregnancy complication particularly diabetes, and the baby can grow too large. This can cause problems at birth and longer term health issues for the child.  The UPBEAT trial aimed to find out whether, by making changes to the food obese pregnant women eat and increasing physical activity reduces these problems, and leads to improved long term health for mother and child.

 The UPBEAT trial was funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The original study finished recruiting in 2014, but we are still following up the UPBEAT families to see what impact the intervention has had. If you took part in the original research and would like to take part in the follow-up study please contact the UPBEAT Team at childrenofupbeat@kcl.ac.uk.

We welcome applications for the use of the UPBEAT trial data and samples from the academic and scientific community. If you are interested in accessing the data please contact Lucilla Poston (lucilla.poston@kcl.ac.uk) and request an UPBEAT research application form to complete and return. All applications are considered by the UPBEAT Scientific Advisory Committee.

After the success of the original UPBEAT trial and UPBEAT TEMPO hearts, we are pleased to announce our upcoming project, Children of UPBEAT.

This follow-up study is being funded by the British Heart Foundation and will be looking at UPBEAT children now aged around 9-11 years-old, to assess their cardiovascular structure and function.

The results of the original UPBEAT trial and the three-year follow-up have shown evidence of behavioral intervention (diet and physical activity) conducted with the mother having a protective effect on the child’s cardiovascular health. This suggests a prolonged positive impact of the intervention on the health of children. Conversely, there was evidence of sub-clinical cardiovascular changes in children born to women with a high body mass index (BMI) and who had not received the behavioral intervention. These changes may amplify with time and could predispose some children to cardiovascular complications.

Therefore, Children of UPBEAT is aiming to once more recruit UPBEAT mothers and their children to better understand the relationship between maternal BMI and offspring cardiovascular health. This will be a nationwide study, being run at four sites: London, Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow and we aim to recruit 700-800 participants.