A Mobile Phone App to Promote Healthy Diet and Physical Activity in 2.5-year-olds

A Mobile Phone App to Promote Healthy Diet and Physical Activity in 2.5-year-olds - a Randomised Controlled Trial in Primary Child Health Care.

Childhood obesity is still a major global health issue. The preschool age (2-5 years) has been identified as a critical period to intervene, Mobile technology (mHealth) has been successful for weight loss and behavior changes in adults. This proposed randomized controlled trial aims to assess the effectiveness of an 6-month intervention program, the Mobile-based intervention to stop obesity in preschoolers (MINISTOP) 2.0 mobile phone app integrated in primary child health care for parents of children aged 2.5 years. The MINISTOP 2.0 app is built on the previous MINISTOP 1.0 app. Five hundred children will be recruited at their routine visit at 2.5 years of age and after baseline measures randomized to the intervention or control group. In addition, the investigators will assess acceptability, feasibility and appropriateness of the app by parents and primary child health care nurses.

The MINISTOP 2.0 is a behavioural change program aiming to promote healthier diet and physical activity among 2.5-year-old children. The program consists of features such as information, monitoring and feedback (dietary key variables, physical activity, screen time) and it is built around 13 themes during the 6-month period.

Intake of dietary indicators such as fruits and vegetables, sweet and savory treats, sugar-sweetened drinks (in portions or grams per day)

Percentage of users (parents and primary health care nurses) that were satisfied with app, used features in the app

Parental self-efficacy to promote healthy diet and physical activity behaviors in their child as assessed by a questionnaire

Derived scores from selected questions from a questionnaire (Parental Self-Efficacy for Promoting Healthy Physical Activity and Dietary Behaviors in Children Scale (PSEPAD) Questionnaire). The minimum value is 0 and the maximum value 10.

Inclusion criteria: -Children at the routine visit at 2.5-3 years of age at selected primary child health centers in Sweden Exclusion criteria: Children diagnosed with neurological or endocrine diseases Children who have a parent suffering from a serious physical or psychological disease making the study too demanding for the family Children from families who will not be able to understand the content of the app (i.e. do not speak Swedish, English, Somali or Arabic)

Henriksson H, Alexandrou C, Henriksson P, Henstrom M, Bendtsen M, Thomas K, Mussener U, Nilsen P, Lof M. MINISTOP 2.0: a smartphone app integrated in primary child health care to promote healthy diet and physical activity behaviours and prevent obesity in preschool-aged children: protocol for a hybrid design effectiveness-implementation study. BMC Public Health. 2020 Nov 23;20(1):1756. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-09808-w.