Measuring the Effectiveness of Eatable Alphabet Cards as a Nutrition Education Tool in a Pediatric Weight Management Program

The goal of this research study is to determine whether the use of Eatable Alphabet cards in addition to standard weight management in a primary care setting will increase vegetable consumption. Additional outcomes that will be examined include fruit consumption, child engagement in meal selection and preparation, and clinic follow-up. If the intervention shows a significant effect in the above outcome measures, Eatable Alphabet cards can be implemented as a standard component of obesity management in primary care settings. It is hypothesized that the intervention will increase vegetable consumption, increase child engagement in meal selection and preparation, and increase clinic follow-up.

The study design is randomized control trial, in which the control group includes parent-child dyads receiving care as usual in the weight management program, including nutrition education, and the intervention group includes parent-child dyads receiving care as usual in the weight management program plus Eatable Alphabet cards in addition to typical nutrition education. All study participants will be families receiving care at the POWER Kids Weight Management Program at 410 Lakeville Road, with the child between the ages of 2 and 10 who have overweight or obesity. The primary outcome is parent reported frequency of child vegetable consumption. Secondary outcomes include: parent reported frequency of child fruit consumption, parent reported child engagement in meal selection/preparation, follow-up weight management visit attendance, and child anthropometric outcomes.