Abstract
BackgroundGiven the ongoing childhood obesity public health crisis and potential protective effect of family meals, there is need for additional family meals research, specifically experimental studies with expanded health outcomes that focus on the at-risk populations in highest need of intervention. Future research, specifically intervention work, would also benefit from an expansion of the target age range to include younger children, who are laying the foundation of their eating patterns and capable of participating in family meal preparations. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap by presenting the objectives and research methods of a 10-week multi-component family meals intervention study aimed at eliciting positive changes in child diet and weight status.MethodsThis will be a group quasi-experimental trial with staggered cohort design. Data will be collected via direct measure and questionnaires at baseline, intervention completion (or waiting period for controls), and 10-weeks post-intervention. Setting will be faith-based community center. Participants will be 60 underserved families with at least 1, 4–10 year old child will be recruited and enrolled in the intervention (n = 30) or waitlist control group (n = 30). The intervention (Simple Suppers) is a 10-week family meals program designed for underserved families from racial/ethnic diverse backgrounds. The 10, 90-min program lessons will be delivered weekly over the dinner hour. Session components include: a) interactive group discussion of strategies to overcome family meal barriers, plus weekly goal setting for caregivers; b) engagement in age-appropriate food preparation activities for children; and c) group family meal for caregivers and children. Main outcome measures are change in: child diet quality; child standardized body mass index; and frequency of family meals. Regression models will be used to compare response variables results of intervention to control group, controlling for confounders. Analyses will account for clustering by family and cohort. Significance will be set at p < 0.05.DiscussionThis is the first experimentally designed family meals intervention that targets underserved families with elementary school age children and includes an examination of health outcomes beyond weight status. Results will provide researchers and practitioners with insight on evidence-based programming to aid in childhood obesity prevention.Trial registrationNCT02923050. Registered 03 October 2016. Retrospectively registered.
Highlights
Given the ongoing childhood obesity public health crisis and potential protective effect of family meals, there is need for additional family meals research, experimental studies with expanded health outcomes that focus on the at-risk populations in highest need of intervention
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends participation in family meals as a childhood obesity prevention strategy due to the literature demonstrating a protective effect of participation in healthy mealtime routines on child diet and weight [1]
Given the ongoing childhood obesity public health crisis [13] and the potential protective effect of family meals, there is need for additional family meals research, experimental studies with expanded health outcomes that focus on the at-risk populations in highest need of intervention
Summary
Objectives and hypotheses The objectives of this study with related hypotheses will be as follows: Objective 1. Assess the impact of Simple Suppers on children and caregivers of participating families relative to children and caregivers of families in the control group. BMI z-scores and BMI, waist circumference (WC) z-scores and WC, and BP z-scores and BP will improve more from baseline to post-intervention among children and caregivers, respectively, participating in the intervention than in the controls. BMI z-scores and BMI, WC z-scores and WC, and BP z-scores and BP improvements will be maintained during the follow-up period among children and caregivers, respectively, participating in the intervention
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