Family-centered Obesity Prevention: Communities for Healthy Living (CHL)
- Conditions
- Pediatric ObesityObesity
- Interventions
- Behavioral: Parents Connect for Healthy Living (PConnect)Behavioral: Enhanced Nutrition SupportBehavioral: Media Resources
- Registration Number
- NCT03334669
- Lead Sponsor
- Boston College
- Brief Summary
The Communities for Healthy Living (CHL) program is a family-focused intervention to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors including diet and physical activity among children (age 3-to 5-years) and their families, enrolled in Head Start.
- Detailed Description
This evaluation will test the effectiveness of a family-focused intervention, Communities for Healthy Living (CHL), implemented through Head Start. Over 20% of preschool-aged children in the US experience overweight or obese. Because obesity prevention depends heavily on the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors early in life, preventive efforts offer a higher promise for success if they are family-centered. Effective family-centered interventions for obesity prevention in preschool-aged children, however, remain elusive. While a number of interventions have shown positive effects on child Body Mass Index (BMI), results are inconsistent and short term effects are not maintained. What is more, because families at greatest risk of childhood obesity - including low-income, single-parent, and ethnic minority families - are the most difficult to recruit and retain, results are often limited in their applicability to high risk populations.
In response, the researchers have partnered with Head Start to develop and test a new approach to family-centered childhood obesity prevention that addresses family engagement upfront. The CHL program will be refined and rigorously tested for efficacy in collaboration with Head Start programs in the greater Boston area, which collectively serve over 2000 low-income children each year. Building on a previous pilot study, the investigators will broaden the parent-centered Community Based Participatory Research approach and include Head Start staff in the decision making and implementation process, refine intervention components, and expand technical assistance protocols to support Head Start ownership of CHL while ensuring implementation fidelity. In addition, consistent with the overarching theoretical framework (Family Ecological Model), neighborhood-level socioeconomic, food and physical activity environments around family homes and examine their impact on intervention outcomes will be measured to inform future scale up efforts.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- SUSPENDED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 4280
Not provided
Not provided
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- CROSSOVER
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Intervention Parents Connect for Healthy Living (PConnect) Sites randomized to the intervention group will receive the following: 1. Parents Connect for Healthy Living (PConnect) 2. Enhanced Nutrition Support 3. Media Resources Intervention Enhanced Nutrition Support Sites randomized to the intervention group will receive the following: 1. Parents Connect for Healthy Living (PConnect) 2. Enhanced Nutrition Support 3. Media Resources Intervention Media Resources Sites randomized to the intervention group will receive the following: 1. Parents Connect for Healthy Living (PConnect) 2. Enhanced Nutrition Support 3. Media Resources
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Modified change in BMI z-score Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) BMI of a child is expressed relative to the median BMI in units of ½ of the distance between 0 and +2 z- scores. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5703793/
Change in Child BMI-z score Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child BMI-z score
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in child physical activity Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child physical activity assessed by parent report of average minutes per day child spent in structured free play and organized physical activities
Change in child fruit and vegetable intake Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child fruit and vegetable intake assessed by parent report of child weekly frequency of intake
Change in child sleep duration Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child daily sleep duration assessed by parent report (calculated from average bedtime and wake time)
Change in child screen-time Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child daily hours of screen-time exposure (TV, computer, tablet) assessed by parent completion of the School Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPAN)
Summer weight gain Summer weight gain was assessed over 3 summer periods using BMI data collected at the beginning and end of each academic year Change in child BMIz (and modified BMIz) over the summer period
Change in child sugar-sweetened beverage intake Collected at the beginning and end of each academic year (i.e., fall, spring) for 3 years (BL, Y1, Y2) rather than 4 years as planned Change in child sugar-sweetened beverage consumption assessed by parent report of child weekly frequency of intake
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Boston College
🇺🇸Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States