Reach Through Equitable Implementation of Turtle Island Tales

October 13, 2025 updated by: Montana State University

Reach Through Equitable Implementation of Turtle Island Tales in American Indian Communities: Program Effectiveness

Reach Through Equitable Implementation of Turtle Island Tales is a family-level obesity prevention intervention that aims to reinforce AI cultural values of family interaction and holistic wellness. The long-term objective of this research program is to increase the reach of existing evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for cancer and obesity prevention among American Indian (AI) families who live in persistent poverty census tracts.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Turtle Island Tales is an obesity prevention program for AI families with young children (3-8 years) that was developed to address the gap in home-based, family wellness programs for this population. Substantial research as been conducted on the effectiveness of this program for participating families. The primary aim of the current project is to investigate community-engaged dissemination to improve the reach of Turtle Island Tales. Dissemination strategies will be undertaken in partnership with community leaders and/or local Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) agents who will disseminate the program through existing Extension/SNAP-Ed delivery mechanisms (SNAP-Ed is commonly administered through Extension programs of land-grant universities). Turtle Island Tales was accepted as a SNAP-Ed eligible program in 2022. As such, the program will be administered as part of usual/typical SNAP-Ed delivery in participating communities and largely constitutes program evaluation.

The primary research question is: What is the reach of the evidence-based Turtle Island Tales wellness program intervention within AI communities? A secondary aim for this project is determining the effectiveness of Turtle Island Tales among participating families using program evaluation survey data obtained via SNAP-Ed program evaluation.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

200

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
    • Montana
      • Bozeman, Montana, United States, 59717
        • Montana State University

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Residence in one of identified persistent poverty census tracts
  • Person >18 years of age caring for a child 3-8 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Residence outside of identified persistent poverty census tracts
  • Caregiver <18 years of age
  • No child 3-8 years old living in household

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Turtle Island Tales
All participating families will receive a monthly lesson targeting a healthy behavior (increase fruit/vegetable intake, decrease added sugar intake, increase physical activity, decrease sedentary/screen time, promote healthy sleep, and promote emotional regulation) over the course of one year.
Behavioral: Turtle Island Tales
All participating families will receive a monthly lesson targeting a healthy behavior (increase fruit/vegetable intake, decrease added sugar intake, increase physical activity, decrease sedentary/screen time, promote healthy sleep, and promote emotional regulation) over the course of one year.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
20-item Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey
Time Frame: one year
Pre- and post-evaluation of effectiveness in behavioral outcomes including family-level questions targeting diet, physical activity, screen time, and sleep. The total score is used as the summary score, with a higher score indicating a more positive family home environment relative to health behaviors.
one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Food insecurity screener
Time Frame: one year
United States Department of Agriculture Household Food Insecurity 2-item screener: 1) "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more" and 2) "The food we bought just didn't last and we didn't have money to get more." An affirmative response ("Often True" or "Sometimes True") on either item is considered positive for food insecurity.
one year
Mental Health screening
Time Frame: one year
Two items from the validated Short Form-12 survey: 1) In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life? and 2) In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle your personal problems? Scores are summed, with a higher score being associated with more positive mental health status.
one year

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Montana State University

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
University of Utah

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Emily Tomayko, PhD, Montana State University

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

Helpful Links

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)

November 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

April 30, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

April 30, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 13, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 29, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 7, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

October 15, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 13, 2025

Last Verified

October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2023-650-EXEMPT
  • 1U54CA280812-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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