O17 Healthy Fathers, Healthy Kids: Preliminary Results of a Father-Focused Childhood Obesity Prevention Pilot Program

Abstract

Background There is very limited evidence about the impact of father-focused programs on obesity prevention in young children. Objective The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the preliminary impact of the Healthy Fathers, Healthy Kids community-based nutrition and parenting intervention on paternal food-related parenting practices, mealtime behaviors, and father and child nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Study Design, Setting, Participants Father and child dyads (n = 45) were enrolled in an 8-week (2 hours/week) community-based intervention including nutrition and parent education. Dyads were randomly assigned within groups to intervention (n = 31) or a delayed comparison group (n = 14). Measurable Outcome/Analysis Pre/Post Assessments included the Meals in our Household, Comprehensive Feeding Practices, Healthy Kids, and the Cooking Matters program questionnaires. T-tests were conducted, controlling for pretest differences, between intervention and comparison group fathers, and Hedge's g was calculated to estimate effect sizes (small = 0.2; medium = 0.5; large = 0.8). Significance was set at P ≤ .10. Results Fathers averaged 37.2 years old; the majority were non-white (67%), non-Hispanic (64%), overweight or obese (91%), with a high school education or less (56%). No significant differences were detected in mealtime or physical activity behaviors but a medium effect size was detected in reductions of parental feeding pressure (g = 0.48, P = .005) by fathers in the intervention group. There was a large effect size detected in the increase of green salad consumption (g = 0.75, P = .01) by intervention fathers. Small to medium effect sizes were detected in improvements in fathers’ confidence in their cooking skills (g = 0.25, P = .09) and ability to cook healthy foods on a budget (g = 0.33, P = .10). Further, there was a small effect size in the number of times fathers cooked dinner at home (g = 0.15, P = .06) and the frequency of children eating vegetables (g = 0.13, P = .07). Conclusion Results of this pilot study are encouraging. Future research should continue to explore the impact of larger scale implementation of father-focused interventions on obesity related outcomes. Funding NIH.