Reducing Health Disparities in Childhood Obesity

April 29, 2026 updated by: Michael Beets, University of South Carolina

Reducing Health Disparities in Childhood Obesity Using Financial Incentives in Low-income Households

In this study, we will address cost barriers to participating in summer programs and hypothesize this will lead to marked improvements in children's obesogenic behaviors and a reduction in excessive, unhealthy weight gain over summer.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

For this study, we will rigorously test the impact of providing access to existing community-operated summer programs on weight status (i.e., BMI z-score) and obesogenic behaviors of 1st-3rd grade children from low-income households. Using a pragmatic, Type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized design, we will compare changes in weight status and obesogenic behaviors of children from low-income households randomized to one of two conditions: free summer programming or comparison/control.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

651

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

  • United States
    • South Carolina
      • Columbia, South Carolina, United States, 29201
        • University of South Carolina
      • Columbia, South Carolina, United States, 29208
        • Michael Beets

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

6 years to 10 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1st through 3rd grade students in the participating schools.

Exclusion Criteria:

The only exclusion criteria will be the diagnosis of an intellectual disability, such as:

Autism Spectrum Disorder Down Syndrome Fragile X Fetal Alcohol and/or a physical disability, such as wheelchair use

This decision was made because of the added resources required to evaluate these children, as well as the inability to sample enough of these children to adequately draw conclusions.

No other exclusion criteria will be used.

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Summer Programming
The summer day camps are not singularly focused, such as sport camps or academic only camps. Rather, the camps provide indoor and outdoor opportunities for children to be physically active each day, provide enrichment and academic programming, as well as provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks. To standardize programming, the schools operate their camps on the same daily schedules which are developed by the same district-level personnel, with identical programmatic content delivered across all schools. The schools also provide the same meals to all children enrolled. The meals adhere to the Summer Food Service Program nutrition guidelines and are reimbursed through existing federal food programs.
Behavioral: Free Summer Programming
The summer day camps are not singularly focused, such as sport camps or academic only camps. Rather, the camps provide indoor and outdoor opportunities for children to be physically active each day, provide enrichment and academic programming, as well as provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks. To standardize programming, the schools operate their camps on the same daily schedules which are developed by the same district-level personnel, with identical programmatic content delivered across all schools. The schools also provide the same meals to all children enrolled. The meals adhere to the Summer Food Service Program nutrition guidelines and are reimbursed through existing federal food programs.
No Intervention: Comparison/Control
The children in the control group will be children enrolled in the same schools as those randomized to receive summer programming. The comparison/control group will not receive a voucher to attend a summer camp.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
BMI Age-Sex Specific Z-Score
Time Frame: Baseline and 3 months
Change in Body Mass Index age=sex specific z-score. 0 represents the 50th percentile. A reduction of 0.15 is considered clinically meaningful in an already obese population
Baseline and 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity
Time Frame: 2 months
Accelerometer-derived moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (minutes per day)
2 months
Sleep
Time Frame: 2 months
Accelerometer-derived sleep (minutes per day)
2 months
Diet
Time Frame: 2 months
Parent report of child dietary intake
2 months
Screen Time
Time Frame: 2 months
Parent report of screen time usage (minutes per day)
2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of South Carolina

Collaborators

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

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.

General Publications

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 (Actual)

August 26, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 26, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 27, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

August 28, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 29, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00086238
  • R01DK120490 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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

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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