Putting family into family-based obesity prevention: enhancing participant engagement through a novel integrated knowledge translation strategy

Abstract

BackgroundWith 1 in 4 Canadian preschoolers considered overweight or obese, identifying risk factors for excess weight gain and developing effective interventions aimed at promoting healthy weights and related behaviours among young children have become key public health priorities. Despite the need for this research, engaging and maintaining participation is a critical challenge for long-term, family-based studies. The aim of this study is to describe the implementation and evaluation of a parent-only advisory council designed to engage participants in the implementation and evaluation of a longitudinal, family-based obesity prevention intervention.MethodsA Family Advisory Council (n = 14 parents, 70% mothers, 64% white), was established to engage participant stakeholders in decisions related to research protocols and strategies to engage and sustain family participation. Using a mixed methods approach, including a participant survey and focus group, we examined the council members’ perceptions of their role and the impact this novel integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT) strategy had on the Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS), a longitudinal family-based study.ResultsAll members of the Family Advisory Council felt the topics discussed were appropriate, felt that their opinions were valued and that their suggestions have had an impact and direct benefit on the GFHS. The addition of the Family Advisory Council led to changes in study protocol (i.e. creation of more detailed intervention emails, creation of kid-friendly accelerometer bands) that may have contributed to the high retention rate of the GFHS (95% at 6-month follow-up).ConclusionsEngaging parents as research partners in family-based research studies may be an effective way to increase participant engagement and study retention.

Involving Parents in Promoting Healthy Energy Balance-Related Behaviors in Preschoolers: A Mixed Methods Impact and Process Evaluation of SuperFIT

“…Unfortunately, some of these materials are mandatory information from medical ethical committees, and can therefore not be modified. Still, future recruitment strategies should balance the required information provision with participant needs, for instance, by using tailored communication and pictures [ 19 ] or by engaging parents in research development [ 46 ].…”

‘It reshaped how I will do research’: A qualitative exploration of team members’ experiences with youth and family engagement in a randomized controlled trial

“…The work environment plays a critical role in fostering trusting and collaborative relationships among inter‐professional teams 34 . Honesty and trust were seen as key to building team relationships in this study, as well as earlier studies on youth engagement, 35 family engagement 3 and service user engagement 27,36 . Although prior research reported mistrust as a barrier, 27 participants in our study focussed on trust as a strength.…”

“…Few studies have examined the perceptions of engagement by broad project teams, particularly relating to youth mental health. The powerful and impactful nature of youth and family engagement has been found previously 3,11,13,44 . Happell et al, 11 for instance, found that engagement brought value and improvement to mental health research.…”

Demand sensing and digital tracking for maternal child health (MCH) in Uganda: a pilot study for ‘E+TRA Health’

“…This study used an iterative co-design process among academics, practitioners, and other stakeholders, which evolves to the Embedded Research Translation (ERT) model † , co-developed by USAID and LASER PULSE consortium, where research is intentionally applied to a development challenge. It has similar characteristics to Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT), which is also a collaborative research approach involving health practitioners as equal partners alongside researchers, with the goal of creating more relevant and useful solutions that result in better research outcomes [32,33,34,35]. The key principle of both ERT and IKT is involving practitioners throughout the research process starting with identification of the research question, and are actively engaged in the governance, priority setting and conduct of the research [32].…”