TY - JOUR
T1 - Growing Healthy Together
T2 - A Randomized Clinical Trial Using Parent Mentors for Early Childhood Obesity in Low-Income, Latino Families
AU - Foster, Byron A.
AU - Weinstein, Kelsey
AU - Padilla, Thalia
AU - Martinez, Cynthia
AU - Angeles-Ramos, Diana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2022.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - Background: Parent mentors are a potential community-based mechanism for delivering behavioral interventions. For communities at a higher risk of obesity and challenges with access to care, such as migrant and seasonal farm workers, this may be an effective intervention for obesity. This study examined the effect of parent mentors on weight outcomes. Methods: This randomized clinical trial assigned parents of 2- to 5 year-old children enrolled in Head Start 1:1:1 to control, a parent mentor teaching We Can!, or a parent mentor teaching an intervention derived from positive deviance methods. The parent mentor arms were designed to have weekly interactions and monthly community meetings over 6 months. The primary outcome was change in adiposity, as measured by body mass indices. Results: We randomized 188 parents, and 155 completed the 6-month visit. Most parents, 107 (58%), had less than a high school education, and 170 (90%) reported Latino ethnicity. In the intention-to-treat analysis, no difference between the groups was observed for change in percent distance from the median or BMI z-score. The median number of interactions was 14 (IQR 10-20) over 6 months for those who did engage, though 24 of 118 (20%) had no interaction. Those with no interactions in We Can! had a mean increase in change from median of 6.7 [standard deviation (SD) = 8.2]; those with higher participation experienced a 0.4 (SD = 9.2) change, p = 0.04. Conclusions: Parent mentors were not effective in changing the adiposity indices in this study overall, with some evidence of efficacy after accounting for participation. Clinicaltrials.gov registration number: NCT03330743.
AB - Background: Parent mentors are a potential community-based mechanism for delivering behavioral interventions. For communities at a higher risk of obesity and challenges with access to care, such as migrant and seasonal farm workers, this may be an effective intervention for obesity. This study examined the effect of parent mentors on weight outcomes. Methods: This randomized clinical trial assigned parents of 2- to 5 year-old children enrolled in Head Start 1:1:1 to control, a parent mentor teaching We Can!, or a parent mentor teaching an intervention derived from positive deviance methods. The parent mentor arms were designed to have weekly interactions and monthly community meetings over 6 months. The primary outcome was change in adiposity, as measured by body mass indices. Results: We randomized 188 parents, and 155 completed the 6-month visit. Most parents, 107 (58%), had less than a high school education, and 170 (90%) reported Latino ethnicity. In the intention-to-treat analysis, no difference between the groups was observed for change in percent distance from the median or BMI z-score. The median number of interactions was 14 (IQR 10-20) over 6 months for those who did engage, though 24 of 118 (20%) had no interaction. Those with no interactions in We Can! had a mean increase in change from median of 6.7 [standard deviation (SD) = 8.2]; those with higher participation experienced a 0.4 (SD = 9.2) change, p = 0.04. Conclusions: Parent mentors were not effective in changing the adiposity indices in this study overall, with some evidence of efficacy after accounting for participation. Clinicaltrials.gov registration number: NCT03330743.
KW - children
KW - obesity
KW - peer mentor
KW - positive deviance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128800463&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85128800463&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/chi.2021.0165
DO - 10.1089/chi.2021.0165
M3 - Article
C2 - 34613828
AN - SCOPUS:85128800463
SN - 2153-2168
VL - 18
SP - 168
EP - 177
JO - Childhood Obesity
JF - Childhood Obesity
IS - 3
ER -