La Vida Buena Childhood Obesity Program
Condition: Childhood Obesity
MeSH terms: Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Mariposa Community Health Center, a health center in Nogales, Arizona on the US-Mexico
      border, will provide a program to prevent obesity in children and create a community
      environment that supports a healthy lifestyle. Mariposa designed and implemented the La Vida
      Buena ("The Good Life") program and already know that helps families eat more healthily and
      exercise. Mariposa Community Health Center will test this program on younger children aged
      5-8 years old. Providers will refer children who are overweight or obese to the La Vida Buena
      Program. In order to determine if the La Vida Buena program works, Mariposa Community Health
      center will implement the 8-week program with 100 overweight or obese children in their
      Nogales clinic. They will measure their weight (BMI), exercise levels and food habits at the
      beginning of the program and then 3- months and 6-months after the program ends. Mariposa
      will compare these results to children in the nearby Rio Rico clinic who do not receive the
      La Vida Buena program. These 100 overweight or obese children in Rio Rico will instead
      receive one educational session, and the same information will be collected regarding BMI,
      exercise level and food habits. After the 6-month period, the children from Rio Rico will be
      able to receive the full La Vida Buena program.
    

Detailed description: 
      La Vida Buena is a Mariposa project to educate children and families about healthy eating and
      exercise habits. The Health providers at Mariposa Nogales and Rio Rico clinics will refer
      children between 5-8 years old who are overweight or obese and their parents. Each child must
      participate with a parent or adult caregiver who is at least 18 years old. Before the program
      begins, the participant will attend an informational consent/registration session where they
      will be asked to sign a consent form for themselves and their child if they want to
      participate. The study will ask for certain information from each participant in order to
      determine if the program is working. Each family will respond to a questionnaire at three
      points: at the beginning of the program, three months after beginning the program, and six
      months after beginning the program, for a total of six months.

      The questionnaire will include questions about fruit, vegetable and carbohydrate consumption,
      family behavior and habits regarding eating and exercise, moderate and vigorous physical
      activity, sedentary behavior, local foods and environment factors that impact the family. In
      addition, the child's weight will be measured at each time point.

      Participation in La Vida Buena will take 6 months. At the Nogales site, participants will be
      invited to a series of weekly classes over the course of 8 weeks that are being offered by
      the Mariposa clinic related to child healthy weight, exercise and nutrition. At the Rio Rico
      site, participants will be offered one face to face educational session about child healthy
      weight with Mariposa staff. Participants will be scheduled for BMI measurements and
      questionnaires three months after initiating the program, as well as six months after
      initiating the La Vida Buena Program.
    

Intervention name(s): La Vida Buena Program; Brief Educational Session
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The intervention is series of interactive one hour weekly classes over the course of 8 weeks related to child healthy weight, exercise and nutrition. Facilitated by community health workers, the classes are interactive and play-based and designed to engage both the child and accompanying parent or guardian in activities.; A one hour session about nutrition and physical activity to address obesity facilitated by a community health worker
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: childhood obesity; intervention; community health workers; community-based