Chronic Conditions in Childhood Obesity Subject: An Mixed Methods Research Approach

Background: Childhood obesity is a global "public health crisis" with increasing prevalence rate in all racial, ethnic and gender groups, as well as across socioeconomic strata. Research findings indicate that over the past 30 years, the prevalence of chronic conditions in children and youths has increased. Childhood obesity impacts physical, psychological and social well-being, and also impacts the economy as well.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the healthy status, healthy lifestyles among school-age obese children of chronic conditions, then to examine the contextual factors affecting their healthy lifestyles, in order to develop a theory-informed and evidence-based intervention of school-based and family-involved intervention for obese children, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions by using mixed methods (MM) research approach.

Methods: This study will be a three-year mixed methods study, including the identification of obesity issues among children with chronic conditions in the first phase study (2013/10/01-2014/07/31), development of an intervention protocol in the second phase study (2014/08/01-2015/07/31), and conduction/evaluation of an intervention of lifestyle intervention in the third phase study (2015/08/01-2016/07/31). Firstly, anthropometry, healthy lifestyles questionnaire survey on children aged 7-12 and school environment audit will be conducted. By using the literature review, meta-analysis and focus-research approaches to develop a healthy lifestyle intervention protocol in the second year program. The protocol will be tested on a sample of school-age children with asthma, to develop a school-based and family-involved healthy lifestyle intervention. Finally, the protocol will be undertaken on children with asthma aged 10-15, by using an experimental (pretest-posttest) design with repeated follow-ups. The research subjects will be randomly assign to condition of receiving intervention or control; the measurement of the outcome across 4 observations, to assess both group differences (experimental comparison), and changes within groups. The interventions consist of healthy diet (X1), regular exercise (X2), and booster energy balance-related behaviors (BEBRB) (X3). The observations start from baseline (O1), then have three observations (O2, O3, O4) at 3-month interval respectively. Outcome indicators include height, body weight, waist circumference as well as healthy life style modification present by diet record, exercise diary, healthy life environments. The research subjects will consist of randomly sampled school-age children and their fathers (or mothers), school teachers and school nurses. The approximate sample size is estimated by power analysis and dropout rate, the eligible sample size will be 200 and 160 pairs of children with their parents, school teachers and nurses in the first and third year respectively.

Expected outcomes: To recognize the risk factors and determinants, have an evidence-based development of school-based and family-involved lifestyle modification to better health outcomes for children with chronic conditions.