A YouTube Curriculum for Children With Autism and Obesity

NCT06259539 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: IRB-FY2023-307
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 15
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Parents as primary caregivers play an important role in shaping children's mealtime and eating behaviors; and in preventing weight gain. Conventionally, in-person, parent-implemented treatments have worked well for children with autism, however, post-COVID-19 pandemic there is a need for virtual, evidence-based training for parents to improve nutrition in children with autism and weight issues. This study aims to: a) increase self-efficacy among parents of children with autism and overweight or obesity to feed their children a healthy diet, b) improve parental nutrition knowledge and skills on how to feed their child with autism and overweight or obesity a healthier diet, c) improve their child's mealtime behaviors, and d) increase the child's dietary variety.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Obesity, Childhood

Keywords

Mixed-methods research; YouTube; Nutrition education

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Parental self-efficacy

  The study utilized a previously validated 9-item list questionnaire that measured their level of confidence (self-efficacy) in their ability to make nutrition-related decisions for their child with autism and overweight or obesity

  8 weeks

• Parents's nutrition knowledge

  To test this, a previously validated 18-item questionnaire was administered to test their knowledge of family mealtimes, food groups, and meal planning.

  8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory (BAMBI)

  8 weeks

• Child's food intake

  8 weeks

Study Arms (2)

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

This group completed an 8-week virtual, YouTube-delivered nutrition education intervention. They were expected to watch the assigned videos per week at least once and practice the skills and strategies with their child with autism. This group completed all the baseline, mid-point, and end-point data using the questionnaires/surveys on Qualtrics.

Behavioral: YouTube nutrition education

Control

NO INTERVENTION

This group completed all surveys but received no intervention. They received access to all study materials at the end of the study.

Interventions

YouTube nutrition education BEHAVIORAL

For those in the intervention group, the YouTube training modules had step-by-step recipe demonstrations, strategies on how to get your child to eat more new foods, social stories, First-Then visual chart, and other nutrition education materials. All the videos were less than 5 minutes long, and parents were assigned 2 videos per week for 8 consecutive weeks. Parents answered 2 open-ended questions each week related to the educational materials they reviewed.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

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

You may qualify if:

• Participants have a child between the ages of 6 to 11 years with a diagnosis of autism
• have a child with autism with a Body Mass Index (BMI) equal to or greater than the 85 percentile
• they can read and understand English
• they can access the internet and participate in online research
• their child with autism accepts at least 20 foods
• their child with autism is not on a special restricted diet
• their child with autism does not consume any medications affecting eating.
• they are 18 years of age or older

You may not qualify if:

• if the child is on medication such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, or SSRIs
• if the child has high food selectivity (eats less than 20 foods).
• if the child has a healthy body weight.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Texas Woman's University: lead
• Woodcock Institute for the Advancement of Neurocognitive Research and Applied Practice: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Texas Woman's University

Denton, Texas, 76204, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Pediatric Obesity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders; Obesity; Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Miteshri D Prajapati, M.S

  Texas Woman's University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

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

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 6, 2024
• First Posted: February 14, 2024
• Study Start: September 7, 2023
• Primary Completion: February 10, 2024
• Study Completion: February 13, 2024
• Last Updated: February 14, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-02

Locations

US (1)