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Faith-Based Anti-obesity Program Effects on BMI, Diabetes, and Hypertension in South Asian Americans: A Prospective Single-Arm Pre-Post Trial

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Data Availability

Deidentified participant health metric data, without demographic variables, may be available to researchers affiliated with an accredited academic institution, by reasonable proposal request and after review by the study team, within five years of publication. Requesters must agree, in writing, that no attempt will be made to identify any participants. Demographic data is not available as these variables may be used to identify participants in this small community.

Abbreviations

AHA:

American Heart Association

BMI:

Body mass index

HbA1c:

Hemoglobin A1c

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Acknowledgements:

We extend our sincere gratitude to Mr. Manu Shah, the Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC) Wellness Initiative Leader, whose invaluable support made this study possible. We also acknowledge the dedicated efforts of the JCSC Wellness Committee, including Ashok Savla, Darshna Shah, Debbie Shah, Dr. Dipti Doshi, Dr. Gunvant Mehta, Jayana Shah, Dr. Hemang Doshi, Kush Shah, Mina Choksi, Manu Shah, Dr. Nitin Shah, Prafulla Shah, Rupaben Shah, Sonal Shah, Virendra Shah, and Yogesh Shah. Finally, we are grateful to JCSC members for their participation in this wellness initiative and sharing their deidentified data.

Funding

The Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC) Wellness Initiative was supported by a philanthropic donation from the Sarva Mangal Family Trust. A founder of the Sarva Mangal Family Trust and JCSC community leader, Mr. Manu Shah, was the initiative leader and oversaw the design, implementation, data collection, and management of the program. While Mr. Manu Shah was provided the manuscript to confirm the accuracy of methodology, the funder had no role in the presented analysis or interpretation of the data and preparation, peer review, or journal approval of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Pavan Khosla and Rushabh H. Doshi are co-first authors and contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Pavan Khosla BA, Rushabh H. Doshi MSc, MPH & Kanhai S. Amin BS

  2. Section of Digestive Diseases, Yale New Haven Health System, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Chloe Bennett PhD & Thiruvengadam Muniraj MD

  3. Division of Cardiology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA

    Keshav R. Patel MD

Authors
  1. Pavan Khosla BA
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  2. Rushabh H. Doshi MSc, MPH
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  3. Kanhai S. Amin BS
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  4. Chloe Bennett PhD
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  5. Keshav R. Patel MD
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  6. Thiruvengadam Muniraj MD
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Contributions

PK: literature search, data analysis, initial drafting and editing of the manuscript. RD: data acquisition, literature search, data analysis, editing of the manuscript. KA: literature search, data analysis, and editing of the manuscript. CB and KP: technical support and manuscript editing. TM: critical analysis, manuscript editing, and guidance.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pavan Khosla BA or Thiruvengadam Muniraj MD.

Ethics declarations

Human Ethics and Consent to Participate:

Not applicable.

Conflict of Interest:

The authors have declared no conflict of interest. KA reported receiving employment and holding stock options in Aledade after and unrelated to this work.

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Khosla, P., Doshi, R.H., Amin, K.S. et al. Faith-Based Anti-obesity Program Effects on BMI, Diabetes, and Hypertension in South Asian Americans: A Prospective Single-Arm Pre-Post Trial. J GEN INTERN MED (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-025-09767-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-025-09767-1