The System Fammeal With Tailored Recommendations and Gamification for Parents to Counteract Childhood Obesity

NCT03881280 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: FCT-PD/BD/128309/2017
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 28
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The investigators aim to test an evidence-based intervention, allocated to a mobile app designed to parents and their children with 3 to 6 years old, identified by family doctors or nurses at well-child care visits as overweight or obese for age. This intervention aims to improve parent's perceptions and attitudes regarding children's weight status and food intake, leading to better dietary intake and children's' eating behaviors through positive parental child-feeding practices. In this study, the investigators aim to assess the feasibility of the intervention and explore its impact on the beliefs and attitudes of parents.

Conditions

Overweight and Obesity

Keywords

Childhood Obesity; Nutrition; mHealth; Parenting

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Change from Baseline Perceptions and Attitudes regarding children's weight status at 4 weeks

  Parents recognize their children as overweight/obese (0-10 rating scale, ranging from 'too slim' to 'too heavy') and are concerned about it (0-10 rating scale, from 'Not concerned at all' to 'Extremely concerned').

  Baseline and 4 weeks

• Change from Baseline Perceptions and Attitudes regarding children's food intake at 4 weeks

  Parents are aware of dietary recommendations for children's age (Fruit and vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages, energy-dense foods and water) and are concerned about their achievement (0-10 rating scale, from 'Not concerned at all' to 'extremely concerned').

  Baseline and 4 weeks

• Dietary Intake (in this pilot RCT only evaluated to test the randomization)

  Increase fruit and vegetables and water intake per day and decrease sugar-sweetened beverages and energy-dense foods intake per week (evaluated by food frequency questionnaire).

  Baseline

• Parental child-feeding practices (in this pilot RCT only evaluated to test the randomization)

  Increase Availability and Accessibility of Healthy Foods; Attractive presentation of foods; Nutrition Education and decrease of Distractions (evaluated by HomeSTEAD Survey, adapted to Portuguese within this study).

  Baseline

• Study population eligibility and interest

  Proportion of all parents invited who meet eligibility and who accepted to enroll.

  Baseline

• Participant engagement

  Mean of points earned and app access per participant during intervention and proportion of recommended videos watched.

  4 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Eating Behaviors (in this pilot RCT only evaluated to test the randomization).

  Baseline

Study Arms (2)

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

Treatment as usual for 4 weeks

Intervention group

EXPERIMENTAL

Education through the app for 4 weeks

Behavioral: Parenting education program

Interventions

Parenting education program BEHAVIORAL

Parenting education program through the app Fammeal. It includes educational content, tailored to parents and centered on positive parenting child-feeding practices. The app will also include a virtual-pet game for children, in order to help them self-regulate their intake. Through the app, parents will: * Fill in a registration questionnaire, which will tailor recommendations. * Receive information and video content recommendations. * Set goals related to their child's lifestyle and tracking progress. * Earn points by watching the contents. * Invite children to play a serious game. * Exchange messages with other users. The investigators created a support website that connects to the main server to get data gathered from the mobile app and game.

Intervention group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 36 Months - 83 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Children with 36 to 83 months at the start of the intervention.
• Children overweight or obese for age, according to World Health Organization criteria.
• Parent/ caregiver with at least 18 years old.
• Parent/caregiver involved in child feeding management (≥ 5 in a 0-10 rating scale, from 'Not at all' to 'Extremely involved').
• Parent/ caregiver able to read, speak and understand Portuguese.
• Parent/caregiver with an android device.
• Parent/caregiver willing to participate in the research study, to participate in two face-to-face evaluations, to install and use the app and to receive weekly notifications and 1-3 calls, during 4 weeks.

You may not qualify if:

• Children with any medical conditions that affect growth, intake or physical activity.
• Children with any dietary professional advice, in the last 6 months.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universidade do Porto: lead
• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia: collaborator
• Administração Regional de Saúde do Norte, Portugal: collaborator
• Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde do Grande Porto III - Maia / Valongo, Portugal: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto

Porto, Porto, Portugal, 4200-135, Portugal

Location

Related Publications (2)

• Afonso L, Rodrigues R, Reis E, Miller KM, Castro J, Parente N, Teixeira C, Fraga A, Torres S. Fammeal: a gamified mobile application for parents and children to help health care centers treat childhood obesity. IEEE Transactions on Games. 2020. doi: 10.1109/TG.2020.3015804.

  RESULT

• Afonso L, Rodrigues R, Castro J, Parente N, Teixeira C, Fraga A, Torres S. A Mobile-Based Tailored Recommendation System for Parents of Children with Overweight or Obesity: A New Tool for Health Care Centers. Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2020 Aug 7;10(3):779-794. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe10030057.

  PMID: 34542511 RESULT

Related Links

• Website of the project

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Overweight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

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

Study Officials

• Lisa Afonso

  Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 12, 2019
• First Posted: March 19, 2019
• Study Start: February 6, 2019
• Primary Completion: May 1, 2019
• Study Completion: June 14, 2019
• Last Updated: September 17, 2020

Record last verified: 2019-08

Locations

PT (1)