Family Partners for Health (WEIGHT)

Children and Parents Partnering Together to Manage Their Weight

Young children who are overweight or at risk for overweight are at increased risk for becoming obese as young adults and developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. To date, there have been no interdisciplinary interventions that targeted predominantly ethnic minority low-income children and parents and taught them to work together to improve nutrition and exercise. Using a two-group, repeated measures experimental design, this proposed study will test a 12-week intensive intervention on nutrition, exercise and coping skills (Phase I) and 9 months of continued monthly contact (Phase II) to help overweight 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade children and their parents improve self-efficacy, health behaviors, weight status, and adiposity. The study will take this intervention to the community in which children and parents live, working with four schools in Alamance-Burlington County, NC, and four schools in Wilson County in the early evening. A total of 356 Black, Hispanic, and White children with a BMI >85th percentile and 356 parents with a BMI >25 kg/m2 will be inducted over 3 ½ years and randomized by school to either the experimental or control group. Data will be collected at Time 1 (Baseline), Time 2 (Post Phase I-Intensive Intervention), Time 3 (Post Phase II-Continued Contact), and Time 4 (6-Month Follow-Up). Data collected will include scores on the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II in the parents; eating self-efficacy in the children (CATCH) and parents (Eating Self-Efficacy Scale) and exercise self-efficacy in the children (CATCH) and parents (Exercise Self-Efficacy); health behaviors in the children and parents (3 Day 24-Hour Food Recall and 4 Day Accelerometry Measurement); weight status in the children (BMI percentile) and parents (BMI); and adiposity in the children and parents (waist circumference and triceps and subscapular skinfolds). Data analysis will use general linear mixed models to test the hypotheses. Decreasing overweight in children and parents is urgently needed, and helping children and parents to work together to improve their nutrition and exercise patterns by making small lifestyle pattern changes may decrease future health care costs and decrease morbidity and mortality. The knowledge to be gained from this study may provide a foundation for extending this intervention to other Black, Hispanic, and White children and parents in other communities to assist them to manage their weight.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

718

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599-7460
        • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

7 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion criteria for children include:

  • ability to speak, write, and read in English
  • a BMI > 85th percentile for age and gender
  • at least one parent or guardian with a BMI >25
  • assent and their parent or guardian's consent to their participation

Inclusion criteria for parents or guardians include:

  • ability to speak, write, and read in English
  • a BMI >25
  • a 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade child with a BMI > 85th percentile for age and gender
  • reside with the child; and consent to join the study

Exclusion Criteria: Parents and children will be excluded if either has a:

  • history of a heart murmur
  • congenital heart disease
  • family history of sudden death
  • history of psychological problems such as claustrophobia that would prevent participation in group classes
  • participation in another clinical trial or intervention
  • Asians will be excluded since there is a higher level of risk at a lower BMI than for Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
A 12-week intensive intervention on nutrition and exercise education and coping skills training (Phase I), 9 months of continued monthly contact (Phase II), and then 6 months on their own.
A 12-week intensive intervention on nutrition and exercise education and coping skills (Phase I), 9 months of continued monthly contact (Phase II), and then 6 months on their own.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in body mass index in adults and body mass index percentile in children.
Time Frame: Baseline to 18 months.
Height and weight measures will be taken in adults and children to calculate body mass index in adults and body mass index percentile in children.
Baseline to 18 months.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in adiposity for adults and children as measured by change in waist circumference, triceps, and subscapular skinfold measures.
Time Frame: Baseline to 18 months.
Waist circumference and triceps and subscapular skinfold measures.
Baseline to 18 months.
Change in health behaviors as measured by nutrition and exercise in adults and children.
Time Frame: Baseline to 18 months.
nutrition and exercise behaviors in adults and children based on questionnaire scores.
Baseline to 18 months.
Change in self-efficacy in adults and children as measured by belief that they can improve their eating and exercise behaviors.
Time Frame: Baseline to 18 months.
eating and exercise self-efficacy in adults and children based on questionnaire scores.
Baseline to 18 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Diane C Berry, PhD, ANP-BC, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 2, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 20, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

June 22, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 13, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 12, 2012

Last Verified

July 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 07-0436
  • R0100254-05 (Other Grant/Funding Number: NINR)
  • 5-34696 (Other Identifier: The University of North Carolina at Chapel)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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