Engaging Fathers in Early Obesity Prevention During the First 1,000 Days: Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change Strategies

Abstract

Objective Fathers are critical stakeholders in childhood obesity prevention but are difficult to engage. This review presents a new approach to engaging fathers in obesity prevention during the first 1,000 days. Methods The review focuses on five existing health and social service programs, including prenatal care, pediatric care, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, home visiting, and Early Head Start. For each program, the obesity prevention services provided, evidence of father engagement, and barriers thereto are outlined. Subsequently, policy, systems, and environmental strategies are outlined to address the noted barriers and promote father engagement. Results Although the programs hold great promise in bringing obesity prevention services to fathers, barriers to their engagement are present in the inner (e.g., limited hours of operation, lack of father‐specific materials and programming) and outer (e.g., lack of model programs, best practice models, and consistent funding) settings of programs. Policy, systems, and environmental strategies to increase father engagement focus on earmarked funding, changes to national practice guidelines and practitioner training requirements, and the establishment of father‐engagement performance metrics. Conclusions Increasing father involvement in the specified programs will likely increase their engagement in early obesity prevention in an efficient and sustainable manner.

Fatherhood and Reproductive Health in the Antenatal Period: From Men’s Voices to Clinical Practice

“…Men's voices and perspectives in the prenatal period are too rarely assessed and are generally missing from the Maternal and Child Health literature (Garfield et al 2018;Simon and Garfield 2021), limiting knowledge about their potential needs, perceptions, contributions, and involvement. Fathers are often discouraged from involvement with MCH-related services and sometimes assumed to be uninterested (Steen et al 2012;Davison et al 2019). This data could provide an important basis for enhanced national and local father-friendly clinical practices.…”

The Impact of Fatherhood on Men’s Health and Development

“…Its "Dads Matter Initiative," with its "Dads and Diamonds are Forever" curriculum, and an annual fatherhood conference, emphasizes father's "inclusion, involvement, investment and integration" across the life course, enhancing men's sense of value to himself, his children, the mothers of his children, and his community (i.e., generative fathering) (Harris and Brott 2018). Several other MCH programs, serving low-income communities in the U.S., such as home visiting, Head Start academic enrichment, and the WIC nutrition supplementation programs, also have begun to target and address father's needs, though not yet as systematically as Healthy Start (Davison et al 2019).…”

Publics, technologies and interventions in reproduction and early life in South Africa

“…Their health, in turn, predicts the health of their descendants. Maternal health and behaviours prepartum and postpartum, and in some respects paternal health (although this is under-researched; see Richardson, 2015;Davison et al, 2019), can therefore impact on birth outcomes, future health status, and intergenerational and multigenerational health. In summary, the children and grandchildren of overweight women are at high risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.…”