Quincy Family, Youth & Technology For Lifestyle Change (FYT-4-LIFE) Study
Condition: Pediatric Obesity
MeSH terms: Pediatric Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      To date, approaches that show the most promise for preventing and/or reversing the course of
      childhood obesity involve the delivery of intensive lifestyle interventions within a
      family-based context, emphasizing the necessity of parental involvement and making changes in
      family routines and the home environment. Considering that the current demand for pediatric
      weight management programs far exceed availability, as well as the high attrition rates
      observed in such programs, there is a great need for more accessible and efficient means of
      delivering these interventions to reduce the burden of childhood obesity.

      The goal of this study is to understand whether text messaging and social media platforms can
      be leveraged to address the important issue of childhood obesity by engaging parent/guardians
      in one of these strategies, and whether these strategies produce similar outcomes. No
      existing study has compared these strategies head-to-head, and the investigators believe that
      this project will be instrumental in understanding the determinants of success in these
      strategies and allow us to collect sufficient intelligence to be able to deploy these
      meaningfully to patients as part of usual care.
    

Detailed description: 
      The goal of this pilot study is to evaluate and compare the feasibility and effectiveness of
      two platforms, text messaging and Facebook, for delivering an evidence-based, family-centric
      childhood obesity intervention to parent/guardians of children between the ages of 3-6 with a
      BMI of 90th percentile and above. The investigators hypothesize that the use of both
      platforms for delivering a childhood obesity intervention will help establish healthier
      family routines and be equally engaging and accepted by parent/guardians and children.

      The primary aim of this study is to assess the effect of the intervention on:

        -  Parent/guardian knowledge of healthy family routines (i.e., nutrition, frequency of
           family meals, child's screen time, bedtime routines, physical activity, and sleep hours)
           and of parenting strategies that are preventive of child overweight and obesity

        -  Parent/guardian readiness, confidence, and perceived self-efficacy to make and maintain
           changes in family routines known to be associated with healthy weight outcomes

      The secondary aims of the study are to assess the effect of the intervention on:

        -  The adoption of healthy family routines and parenting strategies that are preventive of
           child overweight and obesity

        -  Daily objective physical activity in the index child by accelerometry (using a physical
           activity tracking device)

        -  Index children's BMI percentile, using data collected during regular clinic visits from
           the electronic medical record

        -  To assess the level of engagement with the intervention, measured via daily activity
           tracker wear by the index child, parent/guardian views of Facebook posts or responses to
           2-way text messages
    

Intervention name(s): Physical Activity; Evidence-based information on healthy family routines
Intervention type(s): Other; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Fitbit Zip is a wireless physical activity monitor that will be worn by the index child during waking hours, and will be used to assess daily active time for the duration of the study.; Educational dimensions include nutrition, frequency of family meals, child's screen time, bedtime routines, physical activity, and sleep hours.
Other intervention name(s): Change in Physical Activity
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: 2-arm interventional study
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Pediatric; Obesity; Intervention; Information and Communication Technologies; Social Media; Text Messaging; Mobile Health