Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls: Outcome Evaluation (FFFIPG)

Using Technology to Prevent Obesity Among African American Girls

The purpose of this project is to reduce health disparities in obesity risk among 8-10 year old African American girls using a culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate internet-based program with no face-to-face interaction. This study will conduct an outcome evaluation to test short and longer term effects on obesity risk.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls

Detailed Description

This research will conduct an outcome evaluation on a promising web based obesity prevention program for 8-10 year old African American girls. A pilot study with 80 girls established its feasibility: recruitment goals were met; attrition rates were < 10%; logon rates to the online program were 74.5%; and statistically significant increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and time spent being physically active were observed. The outcome evaluation will recruit 400 child-parent pairs to examine short and longer term effects of the program on obesity risk. It will also conduct mediation analyses to examine pathways of effect. At the end of the study, the web based program will be hosted on the CNRC web site. Although the use of the internet as a method for changing health behavior is not new, the use of an internet program alone, with no face to face interaction, is novel. This is one of the first programs to attempt this, particularly in an at-risk population.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 342
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Baylor College of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 8 years to 10 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 8-10 years old
• healthy
• African American
• parent willing to participate in data collection
• internet access
• personal email address

Exclusion Criteria:

• mental, physical, or medical conditions that limit fruit-vegetable consumption, physical activity, or ability to fully participate in the program and/or complete baseline and post assessment data collection
• taking medications that influence dietary behaviors, appetite, and/or physical activity

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: story plus behaviorial procedures; The girls randomized to this arm of the study will view an interactive story about 6 8-10 year old African American girls who seek to find clues to solve a mystery about the town in which they live. The episodes will contain information about healthy nutrition and physical activity, as well as basic information about physical activity and kitchen safety tips, developmentally appropriate recipes, and portion sizes. Girls randomized to this arm of the study will also engage in key behavior change procedures, such as goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring.	Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls; This is an 8 episode intervention, delivered entirely over the internet. Each episode, girls will view an interactive story in which 6 8-10 year old African American characters attempt to solve a mystery about their town. The online program will include information about healthy nutrition (i.e., consuming more fruit, vegetables, water) and physical activity. There will be two groups; one group (the experimental group) will view the interactive story and participate in key behavior change procedures, such as personal goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring activities. The second group (the active comparator group) will view the online stories but will not engage in key behavior change procedures.
Active Comparator: story only; The girls randomized to this arm of the study will view an interactive story about 6 8-10 year old African American girls who seek to find clues to solve a mystery about the town in which they live. The episodes will contain information about healthy nutrition and physical activity, as well as basic information about physical activity and kitchen safety tips, developmentally appropriate recipes, and portion sizes. Girls randomized to this arm of the study will not engage in key behavior change procedures, such as goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring.	Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls; This is an 8 episode intervention, delivered entirely over the internet. Each episode, girls will view an interactive story in which 6 8-10 year old African American characters attempt to solve a mystery about their town. The online program will include information about healthy nutrition (i.e., consuming more fruit, vegetables, water) and physical activity. There will be two groups; one group (the experimental group) will view the interactive story and participate in key behavior change procedures, such as personal goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring activities. The second group (the active comparator group) will view the online stories but will not engage in key behavior change procedures.
No Intervention: Wait list control; This group will participate in data collection only; after the 3rd data collection point, they will be given access to the intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Body mass index percentile	height and weight will be used to calculate BMI percentile	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
fruit and vegetable consumption	dietitian-assisted dietary recalls will be collected using the NDSR system; 2 recalls will be collected (1 week day and 1 weekend day)	3 months
physical activity	Accelerometers will be used to assess physical activity at each time point	3 months
self efficacy	Standard measures will be used to assess fruit, vegetable, water, and physical activity self efficacy	3 months
home availability	standard measures will be used to assess fruit, vegetable, and physical activity equipment home availability	3 months
asking behaviors	standard measures will be used to assess child fruit, vegetable, water, and physical activity asking behaviors	3 months
fruit and vegetable consumption	dietitian-assisted dietary recalls will be collected using the NDSR system; 2 recalls will be collected at each time point (1 week day and 1 weekend day)	6 months
physical activity	Accelerometers will be used to assess physical activity	6 months
self efficacy	standard measures will be used to assess fruit, vegetable, water, and physical activity self efficacy	6 months
home availability	standard measures will be used to assess fruit, vegetable, and physical activity equipment home availability	6 months
asking behaviors	standard measures will be used to assess child fruit, vegetable, water, and physical activity asking behaviors	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Baylor College of Medicine
• Collaborators: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Deborah I Thompson, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Callender C, Liu Y, Moore CE, Thompson D. The baseline characteristics of parents and African American girls in an online obesity prevention program: A feasibility study. Prev Med Rep. 2017 May 19;7:110-115. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2017.05.011. eCollection 2017 Sep.
• Thompson D, Mahabir R, Bhatt R, Boutte C, Cantu D, Vazquez I, Callender C, Cullen K, Baranowski T, Liu Y, Walker C, Buday R. Butterfly Girls; promoting healthy diet and physical activity to young African American girls online: rationale and design. BMC Public Health. 2013 Aug 2;13:709. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-709.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 21, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): November 30, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): January 20, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 18, 2016
• Last Verified: January 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: physical activity; African American; water; online; girls; fruit and vegetable
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: H-27505; R01MD005814 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)