Evaluation of an eHealth intervention aiming to promote healthy food habits from infancy -the Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health

Abstract

BackgroundStrategies to optimize early-life nutrition provide an important opportunity for primary prevention of childhood obesity. Interventions that can be efficiently scaled-up to the magnitude needed for sustainable childhood obesity prevention are needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of an eHealth intervention on parental feeding practices and infant eating behaviors.MethodsThe Norwegian study Early Food for Future Health is a randomized controlled trial. Parents were recruited via social media and child health clinics during spring 2016 when their child was aged 3 to 5 months. In total 718 parents completed a web-based baseline questionnaire at child age 5.5 months. The intervention group had access to a webpage with monthly short video clips addressing specific infant feeding topics and age-appropriate baby food recipes from child age 6 to 12 months. The control group received routine care. The primary outcomes were child eating behaviors, dietary intake, mealtime routines and maternal feeding practices and feeding styles. The secondary outcomes were child anthropometry. This paper reports outcomes at child age 12 months.ResultsMore than 80% of the intervention group reported viewing all/most of the video clips addressing infant feeding topics and indicated that the films were well adapted to the child’s age and easy to understand. Children in the intervention group were served vegetables/fruits more frequently (p = 0.035) and had tasted a wider variety of vegetables (p = 0.015) compared to controls. They were also more likely to eat family breakfast (p = 0.035) and dinner (p = 0.011) and less likely to be playing or watching TV/tablet during meals (p = 0.009) compared to control-group children. We found no group differences for child anthropometry or maternal feeding practices.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the eHealth intervention is an appropriate and feasible tool to propagate information on healthy infant feeding to Norwegian mothers. Our study also suggests that anticipatory guidance on early protective feeding practices by such a tool may increase young children’s daily vegetable/fruit intake and promote beneficial mealtime routines.Trial registrationISRCTN, ISRCTN13601567. Registered 29 February 2016, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13601567Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12966-018-0763-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Process Evaluation of an eHealth Intervention (Food4toddlers) to Improve Toddlers' Diet: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…A few other studies have reported on parental use and satisfaction of eHealth interventions targeting young children. One is the Early Food for Future health study, in which Helle et al [ 11 ] found that a high proportion of parents used the intervention website and were well satisfied. A recent paper from the Growing Healthy Program in Australia reported both quantitative and interview data on how parents used and whether they were satisfied with an infant health app, concerning mode of delivery and how the quality of the app was perceived [ 12 ].…”

Examining the effects of an eHealth intervention from infant age 6 to 12 months on child eating behaviors and maternal feeding practices one year after cessation: The Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health

“…The participants had the opportunity to not answer or complete the questionnaire without stating any reasons, hence we have no data regarding grounds for withdrawal. Outcomes at child age 12 months are previously reported [24], the outcome assessment at child age 24 months is reported here–se Supporting information S1 and S2 Files. The Norwegian Centre for Research Data evaluated and approved the study (http://pvo.nsd.no/prosjekt/43975), see Supporting Information S3–S5 Files.…”

“…The participants' use and experience with the intervention were reported in our previous paper [24]. For the current paper, the participants compliance to the intervention was assessed by asking participants if they had seen the intervention`s infant feeding videos and cooking films (all , most , about half , one or two , none) .…”

“…At child age 12 months, we found no differences between mothers with lower and higher education for experiencing the intervention as feasible and easy to understand [24]. Since mothers with lower socioeconomic status constitutes a group of special interest in this field, we wanted to explore whether there were indications of any differences in the intervention’s suitability for this group compared to the entire study population.…”

“…Details regarding study design and rationale for the intervention content have been previously published in a study protocol [23]. Outcomes at child age 12 months indicated that the eHealth intervention could increase daily vegetable/fruit intake and promote more beneficial mealtime routines [24]. The objective of the current paper is to evaluate the effects of the intervention one year after the intervention was ended, without further intervention components.…”