Community-based childhood obesity prevention intervention for parents improves health behaviors and food parenting practices among Hispanic, low-income parents

Abstract

BackgroundGiven the current prevalence of childhood obesity among Hispanic populations, and the importance of parental feeding behaviors, we aimed to assess the impact of the evidence-based Healthy Children, Healthy Families (HCHF) intervention on responsive food parenting practices (FPPs) in a low-income Hispanic population.MethodsThis community-based pilot study used a non-experimental pre/post within-subjects design. Parents (n = 94) of children aged 3–11 years old were recruited to participate in an 8-week, weekly group-based intervention. The intervention was delivered to nine groups of parents by trained paraprofessional educators over a two-year period. Children participated in a separate curriculum that covered topics similar to those covered in the parent intervention. Parents completed self-administered pre/post surveys, which included demographic questions, seven subscales from the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire, and the 16-item HCHF Behavior Checklist. Descriptive statistics and paired samples t-tests were used to analyze data from parents that completed the intervention.ResultsFifty-two, primarily Hispanic (93%) parents completed the intervention (39% attrition rate). For parents who completed the intervention, there was a significant increase in one of the feeding practice subscales: encouragement of balance and variety (p = 0.01). There were significant improvements in several parent and child diet and activity outcomes (p ≤ 0.01).ConclusionsAlthough attrition rates were high, parents completing the study reported enjoying and being satisfied with the intervention. For parents who completed the intervention, reported ‘encouragement of balance and variety’, in addition to several health behaviors significantly improved. Larger studies utilizing an experimental design, should further explore the impact of the HCHF curriculum on improving certain FPPs and health behaviors that contribute to obesity.

Associations between maternal concern about child’s weight and related behaviours and maternal weight-related parenting practices: a cross-sectional study

“…These strategies include modelling the behaviours, limiting or monitoring the behaviours, and providing encouragement or direct support for these behaviours. Given their strong influence on children’s behaviours, parenting practices are often a focal point of family-based obesity prevention interventions [ 3 , 5 ].…”

General Parenting and Hispanic Mothers’ Feeding Practices and Styles

“…It is a widely used feeding questionnaire. Although it was developed and validated on a middle-class, European American sample, it has been used successfully with Hispanic samples [ 66 , 67 ]. The questionnaire yields scores on 12 separate subscales.…”

Testing a Web-Based Interactive Comic Tool to Decrease Obesity Risk Among Minority Preadolescents: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Control Trial

“…Parent participants completed a questionnaire that asked about multiple parental feeding practices, specifically including 6 questions related to environment (ie, I offer a second helping of vegetables to my child during meals at home), 4 related to involvement in purchasing/preparing food (ie, I allow my child to help prepare fruit and vegetable dishes for family meals), 7 related to encouragement (ie, I encourage my child to drink water drinks [unsweetened] before sugary beverages), 8 related to modeling (ie, I model drinking water for my child even if it is not my favorite), and 2 related to teaching about healthy food practices (ie, I discuss with my child why it’s important to eat fruits and vegetables.). The 27-item questionnaire was informed by the validated Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire [ 71 ], which has been used in previous studies with low-income Hispanic parents and African American fathers [ 79 , 80 ].…”