Healthy Together Program Evaluation (Phase 3)

Healthy Weights for Children Project (Phase 3)

Healthy Together is a program that promotes the achievement and maintenance of healthy weights in children and their families.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Overweight and Obesity; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Healthy Together

Detailed Description

The purpose of the Phase 3 scale up project is to expand the reach and impact of Healthy Together (HT), by supporting the integration of the HT program into core services of organizations serving children (up to 18 years) and families, particularly those from under-served populations across diverse communities and settings in Canada. The HT program offers a flexible, effective, integrated approach, relevant to multiple contexts, creating potential to become a sustainable approach to promoting healthier weights in Canadian children. The objectives of the evaluation for Phase 3 are to:

1. Describe the effectiveness of the HT program in relation to knowledge, attitude and behavior change at the individual, family, and community level.
2. Monitor quality and sustainability of HT, when offered as part of core service by organizations to meet diverse community needs and cultural contexts.
3. Create an effective knowledge mobilization framework to increase practice and policy influence of HT, in collaboration with regional, provincial and national networks.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 3400
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
      • Bridge Youth and Family Services

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Community partner organizations with capacity and infrastructure to implement the HT program are eligible to be implementation sites. Priority is given to community organizations serving Indigenous, immigrants/refugees, low income/low literacy groups, and families residing in rural communities. All sites will be required to integrate HT into their existing services.

Inclusion criteria for each participant group are as follows:

Families: HT is designed for children (up to 18 years of age) and families. Children and families participating in programs offered by the partner organizations are eligible to attend HT. All interested families will be able to access the program regardless of their previous knowledge or skill level. Participants do not have to be overweight/obese to participate in sessions.

HT Facilitators: Staff members who are identified by the partner organizations, trained to implement the HT program and directly involved in HT program delivery will be eligible to participate in the evaluation.

Directors of Partner Organizations: Partner organizations will be asked to identify a director (supervisor) that has administrative responsibility for overseeing the delivery of services for children/families that includes the HT program.

National Advisory Committee (NAC): Members of the National Advisory Committee established by The Bridge Youth and Family Service Society for Phase 3 of this project.

Exclusion Criteria:

Family members who have not participated in any of the HT sessions offered as part of on-going services provided by the partner organization.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Other: Intervention group; Participants will receive the intervention - Healthy Together (HT).

Behavioral: Healthy Together; The Healthy Together (HT) program is designed to reduce overweight and obesity among children and youth in priority populations such as Indigenous, immigrant and refugee, and low income families.The HT program consists of 30 sessions, each of which includes cooking and eating together, physical activity and a learning activity covering topics that promote healthy weights. The HT program is delivered by trained facilitators who are provided with a program manual and resources. Trained facilitators in participating community organizations offer the HT program by integrating it within core programming.; Other Names: Healthy Together Children's Health Program

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Physical Activity Behaviour	Godin Physical Activity Leisure Time Questionnaire	At mid point in the HT program (i.e., following the first 15 weekly sessions) and at HT program completion (i.e., following the second set of 15 weekly sessions)
Changes in Healthy Eating	Self-reported changes in eating behavior because of participation in the HT program using validated survey questions	At mid point in the HT program (i.e., following the first 15 weekly sessions) and at HT program completion (i.e., following the second set of 15 weekly sessions)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Knowledge of healthy diet and physical activity behaviors	Self-reported knowledge using validated survey questions	At mid point in the HT program (i.e., following the first 15 weekly sessions) and at HT program completion (i.e., following the second set of 15 weekly sessions)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sustainability assessment (HT program implementation)	Perceptions of HT program maintenance and sustainability from directors & facilitators - using semi-structured telephone interviews	At HT program completion (i.e., following delivery of 30 weekly sessions) and 1 year follow-up
Level of success in increasing practice and policy influence of the HT program	Semi-structured interviews with Directors and National Advisory Committee Members	Year 1, 2, and 3

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Collaborators: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC); The Bridge Youth and Family Services, Kelowna, BC, Canada
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Joan L Bottorff, PhD, RN, University of British Columbia

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Bottorff JL, Huisken A, Hopkins M, Nesmith C. A RE-AIM evaluation of Healthy Together: a family-centred program to support children's healthy weights. BMC Public Health. 2020 Nov 23;20(1):1754. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-09737-8.

Helpful Links

• Healthy Together Program website

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): March 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 25, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 7, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): June 8, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 29, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 27, 2020
• Last Verified: October 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physical Activity; Childhood Obesity; Health Promotion; Prevention; Family Health; Scale-up; Healthy Weights; Cooking Activity; Family education model
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Body Weight; Overweight
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1415-HQ-000616.

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