Healthy Children, Healthy Communities: Effectiveness of a Multilevel Rural Community Engagement Model for Improving Children's Dietary Intake in Family Child Care Homes

Summary

The purpose of this study is to find out whether a program called "Healthy Children, Healthy Communities" can help young children in rural areas eat healthier and improve their health. The study focuses on children ages 3 to 5 who attend family childcare homes in rural communities.

The main goal is to see if the program can:

Help children eat healthier foods, like more fruits and vegetables.

Support childcare providers in using positive mealtime practices that encourage healthy eating.

The study will involve about 120 licensed family childcare providers in rural areas who participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), along with about 240 children they care for.

Childcare providers will be randomly placed into one of two groups:

EAT Family Style Group (Intervention Group):

Complete 7 online training modules over 16 weeks about healthy mealtime practices.

Join 7 individual coaching sessions on Zoom.

Record short videos of their mealtimes to get personalized feedback from a coach.

Work with a coach to set goals and make plans to improve mealtimes.

Receive printed materials and conversation cards to use during meals.

Some providers may join Zoom interviews to share their experiences.

Better Kid Care Group (Comparison Group):

Complete 10 online modules about general childcare topics like child development, oral health, play, and managing a childcare home.

For both groups, the research team will:

Ask providers to fill out online surveys about how mealtimes work in their childcare homes.

Visit the childcare homes to observe and record children's mealtimes on two days at each data collection point.

Measure the height and weight of participating children.

Use a painless skin scanner (Veggie Meter) to check how many fruits and vegetables children have been eating.

Ask providers to complete surveys about the children's eating habits.

The study focuses on rural, low-income communities, where children are at higher risk of having poor diets and obesity compared to children in urban areas. Information will be collected at the start of the study, after 16 weeks, and again after 24 weeks to see if there are lasting changes.

Conditions

• Childhood Obesity Pevention
• Diet Quality
• Feeding Behaviors
• Health Behavior Change
• Rural Health

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

EAT Family Style

Rural family childcare home providers receive 7 online modules on responsive feeding practices over 16 weeks, plus 7 individual coaching sessions via Zoom with Extension agents. Providers record mealtime videos for personalized feedback, engage in goal-setting and action planning, and receive printed materials and conversation cards.

BEHAVIORAL

Better Kid Care

Rural family childcare home providers receive 10 online modules about general childcare topics unrelated to nutrition, including child development, block play, oral health, supervising children, and managing a family childcare home through the Better Kid Care platform.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Nebraska Lincoln

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dipti Dev, PhD · University of Nebraska Lincoln

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-25

Primary Completion

2028-12-20

Completion

2029-05-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations