Improving Childhood Obesity-Related Behavior Change Through Better Risk Communication

NCT03074929 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: 15895
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

One-third of American children are overweight or obese, leading to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), early mortality, and other risks throughout their lifespan relative to normal weight children. In our pilot work, we found that 67-83% of parents underestimate a child's long-term risk of developing cardiovascular disease in adulthood and that parents thought their own child's risks were 13-15% lower than those of a typical child in their community, even controlling for family health and demographic characteristics. Parents were 40 times less likely to predict that their child, rather than a typical child in their community, would be overweight or obese in adulthood. These findings suggest that parents suffer from optimism bias, the tendency to overestimate one's chances of experiencing unlikely positive events. Belief that a child is at increased risk for adverse health outcomes in adulthood could be an important motivator for a family to initiate behavior changes and vice versa. The overall goal of this research is to develop provider-based risk communication approaches to motivate parents of obese children to engage in behavior change to protect their children from CVD and other obesity-related co-morbidities later in life. Specifically, the investigators will:

1. 1.Develop risk communication methods that providers can use to better convey accurate information about a child's health behaviors, obesity status, and future health risks to parents.
2. 2.Using an online experiment, we will evaluate the impact of new risk communication methods on parental engagement in behavior change.
3. 3.Pilot test the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of new risk communication approaches in pediatric primary care clinics.

Conditions

Obesity, Childhood

Keywords

risk communication

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Frequency of logging meals in food diary

  Frequency of diet monitoring

  7 days

• Quality of food diary

  Quality of diet monitoring (i.e. recording 5 or more different foods per day)

  7 days

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Weight class perception (questionnaire)

  7 days

• Anxiety (Perceived Stress Scale)

  7 days

• Concern about child health (CAHPS)

  7 days

Study Arms (2)

Novel risk communication

EXPERIMENTAL

Intervention parents will receive a novel risk communication message via a tablet app. Parents will also receive height, weight, and BMI percentile information typically provided by a provider during well-child visits as usual.

Behavioral: Novel risk communication

Usual Care

NO INTERVENTION

Parents will receive height, weight, and BMI percentile information typically provided by a provider during well-child visits as usual.

Interventions

Novel risk communication BEHAVIORAL

The investigators will develop novel risk communication messages to communicate the risks of childhood obesity to parents of children with obesity. The investigators will consider several novel approaches around message content and framing, but primarily, we propose using microsimulation models to forecast a child's long-term health risks, based on his age, race, gender, BMI, and family history of CVD.

Novel risk communication

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• must be a parent of a 5-12 year old child
• child must be a patient at University of Washington Medical Center
• child must have BMI at or above 95th percentile for age and sex
• parent must have home or mobile internet access

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Seattle Children's Hospital: lead

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Pediatric Obesity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Obesity; Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Central Study Contacts

Davene R Wright, PhD

CONTACT

206-884-8241; davene.wright@seattlechildrens.org

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 1, 2017
• First Posted: March 9, 2017
• Study Start: November 1, 2017
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2020
• Study Completion: September 1, 2020
• Last Updated: March 9, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share