Study participants
Potencial volunteers with self-reported abdominal obesity (waist 102 cm for men,88 cm for woman)
were recruited through advertisement (newspaper,TV and radio). Volunteers were initially screened for other cardio-metabolic risk factors to deter.
Methods
Study design
The study used a randomised contorlled parallel group design to evaluate
the effectiveness of the active lifestyle intervention program in free-living individuals. Paricipants were block-matched for age,gender,waist and diastolic blood pressure (DBP)and then randomly allocated 2:1 to inervention (INT)or control (CON)using a random number generator. INT received a 16-week structured but ono-prescriptive lifestyle education program that was based on the Australian national diet and PA guidelines. Assessments of diet,PA,body composition and cardio-metavolic risk factors were performed at baseline and afer 16 weeks. Fasting blood samples were collected on teo separate days at each visit to allow for dupliacte assessments of plasma triglyceride concentrations. Data collection commenced in Febuary 2006 and concluded in August 2007. The study was approved by the University of South Australia Human Research ethics Committee. All volunteers provided written informed consent prior to participation.