A Culturally-tailored Narrative Intervention to Target Disparities in Obesity

This study aims to assess the efficacy of a community-based behavioral intervention (H2GO!) targeting sugar-sweetened beverage and water consumption among 108 parent-child pairs (N=216) through a site-randomized trial.

The study setting includes 2 Boys and Girls Club sites in Massachusetts, USA that were pair-matched for size and racial/ethnic composition. The Boys and Girls of America is a national organization that provides affordable after-school programs for a large population (~4 million annually) of diverse youth (33% White, 30% Black, 23% Latino) from predominantly low socioeconomic backgrounds through over 4,000 club facilities across the U.S.

The H2GO! intervention was designed to address two behavioral targets: reducing the number of sugar-sweetened beverage servings consumed per day (recommended guideline of zero servings per day) and promoting water consumption (approximately 5-8 cups per day for youth participants and 8 cups per day for parental participants). Informed by the Social Cognitive Theory and the Social Ecological Model, the H2GO! Intervention was designed to target child and parent participants' knowledge, attitudes (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, perceived social norms) and behavioral capabilities related to sugar-sweetened beverage and water consumption.

The 6-week behavioral intervention consists of group-based weekly sessions (1-hour sessions twice a week) delivered by trained Boys and Girls Club program staff at the Boys and Girls Club site. Each intervention session consists of a 1-hour health module followed by a 1-hour narrative module. Topics of the health modules include: understanding the benefits of water, sampling different types of fruit-flavored water, identifying sugar-sweetened beverages, exploring the local grocery store, identifying barriers and facilitators to drinking water, and managing triggers for sugar-sweetened beverages. The narrative modules include intervention objectives and activities that reinforce knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors targeted in the previous health component.

Child participants will receive a reusable water bottle and a pictorial intervention booklet. Developed by the study principal investigator (PI) and research assistants, the brightly-colored booklet was culturally and linguistically-tailored to the study population and included intervention activity worksheets, parent-child take-home activities, fun facts and quizzes, and beverage consumption tracking sheets. Activity worksheets will be completed by participants during intervention sessions; and parent-child take-home activities will be completed following each session.