Assessing the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Parent-Based Intervention to Reduce the Risk of Obesity in Children of Weight Loss Surgery Patients

Morbid obesity is both highly heritable and affected by environmental factors. The child of a parent undergoing a weight-loss surgery (PWLS) is at especially high risk of obesity. The most effective approach to reducing the risk of childhood obesity is a parent-based program. However, adherence remains a challenge, largely due to lack of tailored interventions. Typical interventions are not individualized to target the unique characteristics of the family nor timed to be delivered when the family is geared for change. Parent-Based Prevention following a bariatric surgery (PBP-B) is a novel targeted intervention that focuses on parental behaviors important for developing healthy eating and lifestyle behaviors in young children. PBP-B personalizes treatment goals through a focused parent-based approach that includes a family meal. Additionally, PBP-B is timed to capitalize on the Halo Effect period, in which the BMIs of the family members of the person undergoing weight loss surgery reduce spontaneously, yet only temporarily.

This study will investigate whether PBP-B is feasible, acceptable, and associated with improvement in short-term outcomes that predict long term risks of obesity (e.g., parental feeding practices, child eating behaviors, child physical activity levels, and child sleep hours). Ten adults who had weight loss surgery and are the parents of one or more children aged 1-10 will receive PBP-B (with their partners, unless they are single parents). This study will collect important pilot data that will inform the design of future adequately powered studies to test ways to reduce the likelihood of adult obesity in children of a parent who had weight loss surgery.