Obesity and Caries in Young South Asian Children: A Common Risk Factor Approach (CHALO)

The CHALO ("Child Health Action to Lower Oral Caries and Obesity") -- from an Urdu word meaning "Let's go!"-is a multi-level strategy to reduce pediatric obesity and dental caries risk in South Asian (SA) children. Obesity and caries are the two most prominent health disparities of early childhood. Both caries and obesity: a) disproportionately impact low-income children of color, b) share common risk behaviors, i.e., feeding practices, and c) can most effectively be reduced or prevented prevention in infancy and early childhood. SA immigrant children are at high risk for both. CHALO includes both a randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at reducing risk behavior, and a Knowledge Translation project to raise awareness in SA lay and professional communities regarding child health risks.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pediatric Obesity; Early Childhood Caries
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Intervention; Behavioral: Enhanced Usual Care (EUC)

Detailed Description

CHALO builds upon the team's prior research re: cariogenic (R34-DE-022282) and obesogenic behaviors (10, 14, 15). CHALO's intervention components-- home visits, phone support, and "patient navigation" to dental visits-- proved to be feasible and acceptable. In the pilot R34, there were promising behavioral change on all measures. CHALO builds on this work, with the addition of: a) sippy cups as an intervention target, b) an iPad-based dietary recall tool, "MySmileBuddy," c) caries and obesity data, and; d) increased intervention contacts- consistent with recent child obesity and caries interventions (16, 17).

An RCT (Aim 1) will enroll 360 mothers of children 4-6 month olds from New York City (n=3) and New Jersey (n=2) pediatric practices in SAPPHIRE ("SA Practice Partnership for Health Improvement and Research"). The Community Health Worker intervention includes: a) home visits with mothers/families (n=6 visits over one year) and follow up telephone support; b) patient navigation to make/keep timely dental visits (2x by 18 months). The Knowledge Translation component (Aim 2) will raise awareness of child health risks in SA communities and among professionals who provide their care. The campaign will include both traditional and social media components and will be evaluated using multiple metrics.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 380
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • East Windsor, New Jersey, United States, 08520
      • Healthy Kids Pediatric Group
    • New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, 08901
      • Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
  • New York
    • Bronx, New York, United States, 10461
      • Jacobi Medical Center
    • Bronx, New York, United States, 10453
      • Morris Heights Health Center
    • Bronx, New York, United States, 10462
      • Montefiore Medical Group
    • Bronx, New York, United States, 10467
      • North Central Bronx Hospital
    • Jamaica, New York, United States, 11417
      • Smart Medical Care
    • Queens, New York, United States, 11106
      • Dr. Masub's Medical and Dental Office

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 3 months to 2 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age: Child is < 6 months of age at time of recruitment
• Insurance: Child is enrolled in either Medicaid or CHIP
• Nativity- Mother was born in India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh)
• Language- Mother speaks standard Bengali, English or Hindi/Urdu
• Agency- Mother is index child's primary caretaker.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to provide informed consent per RA judgment
• Plans to travel for > 1 month during follow-up, and
• child health condition barring participation (per pediatrician review of recruitment lists).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; An RCT will enroll 360 mothers (total) of children 4-6 month olds from New York City (n=3) and New Jersey (n=2) pediatric practices. Half (180) will be assigned to the Community Health Worker intervention comprised of: a) home visits with mothers/families (n=6 visits over one year) and follow up telephone support; b) patient navigation to make/keep timely dental visits (2x by 18 months).	Behavioral: Intervention; Per Arm/Group Description, CHWs will a) conduct 6 home visits with mothers/families over a 12 month period along with follow-up phone support, and b) patient navigation support for child to receive 2 dental visits: one by 12 months of age and one by 18 months of age.
Placebo Comparator: Enhanced Usual Care (EUC); Community Health Workers (CHWs)- will deliver the EUC to all study participants at their 6 month well-child visit, which will occur just after their T0 Baseline Interview, just prior to randomization. EUC Components: 1) Pamphlet- CHWs will hand out and review deliver and review a pamphlet with basic ECC and Obesity prevention messages for parents of 6-18 month olds; and 2) Dental Referral List of dentists who will see 12 month olds, and who accept most insurance plans in the pediatric practices we are recruiting from. Thus, the EUC will be delivered to n=180 families in the EUC Control and n=180 families in the Intervention group.	Behavioral: Enhanced Usual Care (EUC); Per Arm/Group Description, CHWs will provide a pamphlet and dental referral list to participants both groups.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Quantity of (Combined) Sippy Cup and/or Bottles (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Number and amount of sippy cups + bottles/day consumed by child, obtained by RA assessment using MySmileBuddy	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Added Sweeteners/Solids (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Number of sweeteners and/or solids/day added to child's sippy sups/bottles, obtained by RA	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Fruits & Vegetables (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Frequency of servings/day obtained by RA assessment using MySmileBuddy	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Juice & Sweet Drinks (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Frequency of servings/day obtained by RA assessment using MySmileBuddy	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Use of Bottles/Sippy Cups at Nap or Bedtime (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Frequency of child drinking from a bottle or sippy cup/day when put down to bed or nap by RA assessment using MySmileBuddy	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Sweet & Salty Snacks (Common Risk/Behavioral)	Frequency of servings obtained by RA assessment using MySmileBuddy	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Physical Activity (Obesity/Behavioral)	Time child spent in active play, assessed by parent completed questionnaire	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Screen Time (Obesity/Behavioral)	Time child spent in front of TV, computer, iPaD, or phone, assessed by parent completed questionnaire	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Tooth Brushing (Caries/Behavioral)	Frequency of parent wiping/brushing teeth, assessed by parent completed questionnaire	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Dental Visits (Caries/Behavioral)	Number of dental visits (child), assessed by parent completed questionnaire	18 months of age (final follow-up [T2])
Visible Caries	Any visible caries by intra-oral camera (yes/No)	18 months of age (T2).
Caries Severity	dfs index	18 months of age (T2)
Weight-for-length	BMI-for-age Z scores, standardized for sex and actual age at measurement at the baseline (T0), T1 (12 m.) and T2 (18 m.) interviews. We will categorize children as "overweight" and "obese" if their BMI-for-age Z-scores exceed +2 and +3, respectively, as recommended by the WHO	18 months of age (T2)
Change in Weight Velocity Z Scores	Weight velocity Z scores: for each 6 month period: 6 m.>12 m. 12 m.>18m	see above

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Collaborators: Columbia University; University of Rochester; Rutgers University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Alison Karasz, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Karasz A, Bonuck K. Reducing pediatric caries and obesity risk in South Asian immigrants: randomized controlled trial of common health/risk factor approach. BMC Public Health. 2018 May 31;18(1):680. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5317-9.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 7, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 31, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 2, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 7, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): March 13, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 27, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 26, 2022
• Last Verified: July 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2016-6156

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No