Parents and Tots Together: A Family-Based Obesity Prevention Intervention

Summary

The obesity epidemic has spared no age group, including our youngest children. My and others' formative research shows that ethnically-diverse, low-income parents of young children are enthusiastic about learning general parenting skills, such as discipline strategies, but less interested in nutrition and physical activity. To capitalize on this enthusiasm, I will create and test an intervention that embeds strategies to improve child weight-related behaviors within a general skills parenting program.

The overall goal of this study is to assess Parents and Tots Together (PTT), a family-based intervention to prevent obesity among children age 2 through 5 years. To achieve this goal, my colleagues and I will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) among ethnically diverse, primarily low-income families. Our specific aims are to:

1. Determine the extent to which the intervention, compared with a control condition, results in a smaller age-associated increase in body mass index (BMI) among children after a 3- month intervention and a 9-month follow-up period (primary outcome).
2. Determine the extent to which the intervention, compared with a control condition, results in:

1. Improved parent general parenting behaviors, i.e., increased use of positive discipline strategies.
2. Improved parent feeding practices, i.e., increased responsiveness to child satiety cues.
3. Improved child weight-related behaviors, i.e., increased sleep duration and physical activity, and reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake and television/video viewing.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Parents and Tots Together Program

Group-based parenting program, 9 sessions offered weekly

BEHAVIORAL

Control

Minimal attention control- 9 weekly mailed information on general child development

Sponsors & Collaborators

• American Heart Association

  collaborator OTHER

• Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)

  collaborator OTHER

• Johns Hopkins University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Guelph

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jess Haines, PhD · University of Guelph

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-06-30

Primary Completion

2013-10-31

Completion

2013-10-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations