FirstStep2Health Intervention
Pediatric ObesityRisk Reduction Behavior2 moreThis project will determine the preliminary efficacy of an innovative intergenerational intervention among Head Start preschoolers, aged 3-5 years, and their caregivers. A two-group cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted. Six Head Start centers will be randomly assigned to the intervention (n=3) or control group (n=3), and an average of 6 caregiver-preschooler dyads will be recruited from each class (N=144 dyads from 16 classes). Grounded in an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, the 16-week intervention has 3 components: 1) a caregiver component, including 1a) a Facebook-based program with weekly electronic retrievable flyers providing health information and behavioral change strategies and 4 weekly habit-formation tasks to improve parenting practices and home environment for preschoolers; and 1b) 3 face-to-face or virtual meetings (weeks 1, 8, & 16) to establish personal connections and communication networks among caregivers, discuss strategies, and share community resources to support preschoolers' behavioral changes at home; 2) a caregiver-preschooler learning component via Facebook messenger to send preschooler letters to each caregiver privately by the research team twice per week to 2a) share the preschooler's experiences of learning at school and his/her interests for a healthy diet and physical activity at home, and 2b) elicit caregivers' response to the letters; and 3) a Head Start center-based preschooler component to help preschoolers establish healthy habits via weekly healthy diet and physical activity participatory learning.
The Healthy Families Project
Childhood ObesityA primary care approach to obesity prevention will be developed and tested in a randomized trial in 4 pediatric primary care practices. Enhanced screening for obesity risks and prompts for effective counseling at well visits of 4 to 10 year olds will be developed utilizing hand held technology( PDAs). The impact on the content and quality of clinician counseling will be assessed in exit survey prior to and after implementation. Among families interested in making a change to address nutrition or activity risk reported on the screener a cohort with children > BMI 85% will be recruited. They will be randomized to mailed tailored supports to level of readiness to change versus a single generic informational mailing. The hypotheses are that 1)families that receive the enhanced office visit with screening will be more likely to plan to make changes compared to usual care; and 2) families receiving the tailored post visit supports will be less likely to gain weight than controls after 6 months.
YMCA-Physical Activity and Nutrition
Childhood ObesityThere is an epidemic rise in the number of overweight and obese children. Overweight and obesity in children tracks into adulthood and carries elevated risk of chronic diseases such as seen with the metabolic syndrome (i.e., elevated glucose, hypertension, etc.). Low levels of PA and poor nutrition seem to be tightly linked to the increase in overweight and obesity. A minimal intervention that targets simple strategies for both sides of the energy balance equation may diminish overweight and obesity. Increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity and improving nutrition through snacks is a feasible, low cost strategy and can be disseminated nationally through the YMCA, if successful. Specifically, we expect that children receiving YMCA PAN will show smaller changes in BMI after 3 years of the intervention when compared to children not receiving YMCA PAN (i.e. standard, existing YMCA After School Program or "YMCA standard care").
Family Influences to Prevent Childhood Obesity
Childhood ObesityThe main goal of this project is to develop, deliver, and assess the efficacy of a parent-centered educational program (4-Health) designed to prevent preteen children from becoming overweight.
Preventing Childhood Obesity: A Two-pronged Approach Starting in Pregnancy and the First Year Postpartum...
Childhood ObesityExcessive Weight Gain in Pregnancy With Baby Delivered2 moreOur longitudinal aim is to reduce childhood obesity using our two-pronged intervention program, which includes healthy food choices and increased physical activity initiated during pregnancy and re-instated in the early period after delivery for overweight and obese women. We will accomplish this with our family-based Nutrition and Exercise Lifestyle Intervention Program (NELIP) to promote healthy family living. An intervention targeting school-aged children on the importance of healthy lifestyles occurs too late to prevent childhood obesity and establish lifelong healthy body weights. To break this spiraling cycle of generations of unhealthy body weights in Canadian children, and to reduce the risk of future obesity-related health problems, it is necessary to prevent excessive pregnancy weight gain, high blood sugars in the mother and to promote a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy and early post delivery. With our NELIP team as a cornerstone, and our pilot data already collected with promising results, we foresee an opportunity over the next 3 years to contribute to changing patient care with emphasis on disease prevention and healthy family lifestyle initiation early in life to reverse the trend of childhood obesity. With a solid research-based initiative from the lab to the community by educating health care providers, future health care can be improved by putting prevention-based programs into practice. Healthy women = healthy babies = healthy families = healthy futures!!
Addressing Health Literacy and Numeracy to Prevent Childhood Obesity
Obesity PreventionIn 2003, Surgeon General Richard Carmona suggested that low health literacy is "one of the largest contributors to our nation's epidemic of overweight and obesity." Over 26% of preschool children are now overweight or obese, and children who are overweight by age 24 months are five times as likely as non-overweight children to become overweight adolescents. The aim of the study is to assess the efficacy of a low-literacy/numeracy-oriented intervention aimed at teaching pediatric resident physicians to promote healthy family lifestyles and prevent overweight among young children (age 0-2) and their families in under-resourced communities.
KAN-DO: A Family-based Intervention to Prevent Childhood Obesity
ObesityPrevention & Control1 moreThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention (KAN-DO: Kids & Adults Now - Defeat Obesity) encouraging postpartum mothers and their preschool-aged children to work together to promote healthy eating, increase physical activity, and reduce sedentary behaviors. Via instruction in parenting skills and behavior change strategies, the goal is relative weight maintenance in children of healthy weight, and relative weight reduction in overweight children. The intervention will focus on a child (2-5 years of age) and his or her overweight or obese mother, who has just delivered a second or subsequent baby.
Childhood Obesity Prevention
Childhood ObesityDiabetesTo develop and evaluate a culturally appropriate childhood obesity prevention program targeting primary care-givers of third grade students. The cognitive-behavioral lifestyle intervention consisted of eight, 90-minute sessions at the elementary schools. Primary outcome: body mass index of third graders and their primary care-givers Primary objective: To engage primary care-givers of third grand children in identifying and creating health promoting culturally appropriate environments for young children.
The Effect of Baby-Led Weaning and Traditional Complementary Feeding Education on Infant Development...
GrowthInfant Development7 moreThe goal of this [type of study: clinical trial] is to compare compare the nutrition, development, obesity risk and anemia risk of the infant with the BLW method and TCF method given to the mothers of infants who have switched to complementary feeding. The main question[s] it aims to answer are: Does the training on the GTB and BLW method given in accordance with the developmental age of the baby in months have an effect on the feeding and development of the babies in both groups? Does the training on the GTB and BLW method given in accordance with the developmental age of the baby in months have an effect on the obesity risk and anemia risk of babies in both groups? Participants will participate in each session of the complementary nutrition trainings given in accordance with their age on a monthly basis and will provide a diet suitable for the trainings. Researchers will compare the nutritional parameters, developmental levels, and height and weight gains of infants fed with the BLW and TCF method to see the effect of complementary feeding education on the nutrition and development of infants and whether there is anemia and obesity risk.
Combining Prebiotic and Diet/Physical Activity Educational Program Effects on Body Composition and...
ObesityChildhoodThe purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of combining prebiotic (Beneo Synergy 1) and calcium treatment with Project FUN (an online nutrition and physical activity program) on body composition and intestinal microbiota among 4th and 5th grade children whose social determinants placed them at higher risk for obesity. This aim was addressed through testing the following hypotheses: H1 Prebiotic and calcium supplementation in combination with Project FUN, will result in improved body composition scores, dietary fat percentage, and physical activity compared to a usual class control who did not receive the intervention. H2 Higher counts of Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium as well as fewer Firmicutes in the stool samples will correlate with improvement in body composition scores. Since this was a pilot community-based efficacy study, the following feasibility, acceptability, and descriptive research questions were also addressed: RQ1 What percentages of participants submit stool samples, body composition assessments and complete at least 70 percent of the intervention over the course of a 12-week study? RQ2 What is the relationship between changes in body composition scores, dietary fat percentage, physical activity and microbiota in stool samples before and after the 12-week intervention?