Healthy Caregivers-Healthy Children (HC2) Phase II

Summary

One in four U.S. children under the age of 5 years old are either overweight or obese with ethnic-minority children being disproportionately affected. Low-income preschool children, many from ethnic minority backgrounds, receive childcare in federal/state subsidized centers where daily meals are provided. Nationally, the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) organization is responsible for rating the quality of childcare centers. However, nutrition and physical activity policy standards have not been incorporated into QRIS childcare center policies. Therefore, the goal of this project is to address the 2014 AFRI program area priority of Childhood Obesity Prevention by building on the phase I "Healthy Caregivers, Healthy Children (HC2)" NRI/AFRI funded project (2010-2013), in partnership with the Miami Dade County Cooperative Extension team, to evaluate the program via randomized-controlled trial outcomes, and deliver an evidence-based effective childcare center-based program/toolkit. This project (phase II) will expand HC2 Phase I findings by transferring the evidence-based HC2 program/toolkit to QRIS childcare centers via a train-the-trainers (TTT) model. The following specific aims are proposed; (1) to evaluate the TTT model of delivery for the evidence-based HC2 toolkit's effectiveness versus an attention control on parent and teacher adoption of healthy lifestyle role modeling behaviors, and policy integration; (2) to evaluate the impact of a TTT delivery model versus an attention control on child body composition and short- and long-term behavioral health outcomes, and (3) to disseminate the HC2 early childhood obesity prevention toolkit TTT model within the QRIS early childhood network at the Miami Dade County-level.

Conditions

• Pediatric Obesity
• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Healthy Caregivers- Healthy Children Toolkit

The treatment arm will receive the train-the-trainer model (utilizing Quality Counts coaches) to deliver the evidence- based HC2 toolkit.

BEHAVIORAL

Safety Curriculum

Centers randomized to the control arm will receive an attention control consisting of three visits from 'Safety Sam,' a character and safety curriculum that was fully developed and implemented in phase I of HC2. The same delivery model (train-the-trainers utilizing Quality Counts coaches) will be implemented.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Miami

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ruby Natale, PhD, PsyD · University of Miami

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

2 Years

Max Age

5 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-04-30

Primary Completion

2019-03-31

Completion

2019-03-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations