Virtual Technical Assistance for Child and Adult Care Food Program in Family Child Care Home
Condition: Nutrition Poor; Health Behavior
MeSH terms: Malnutrition
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study evaluates the effect of a fully virtual nutrition technical assistance training
      program for family child care home providers on the food they serve young children in their
      care and the food environment in their home. Half the providers will be randomly assigned to
      the nutrition program and the other half will receive a comparison on environmental health.
    

Detailed description: 
      Early care and education (ECE) providers play a vital role in ensuring that young children
      have access to nutritious foods. Over 25% of children in ECE (1.2 million children) attend
      Family Child Care Homes (FCCH). Improvements in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
      may introduce new barriers for FCCH, which have limited meal preparation capacity. Limited
      research has examined foods served by FCCH providers, and no group randomized trials have
      been conducted using a Community-Based Participatory approach in FCCH and including an
      evaluation of intervention costs.

      Goals: 1. Determine the effectiveness of a virtual, rural outreach community-based Nutrition
      Technical Assistance Intervention to enhance meeting CACFP best-practices.

      Methods: Conduct a cross-sectional assessment of a random sample of FCCH providers' (n=54)
      menus and meals served. Foods will be evaluated against the CACFP requirements and
      best-practices. Trained Extension Educators will implement both interventions (n=27
      intervention, n=27 comparison) focused in rural counties, reaching underserved rural and
      low-income populations. The intervention is based on theoretical foundations and formative
      interviews, and will consist of two virtual 60-90-minute one-on-one visits with the FCCH and
      one virtual group class lasting approximately 3 hours.
    

Intervention name(s): Nutrition technical assistance; Children's environmental health technical assistance
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participating family child care home providers in rural counties will be randomized to either the Nutrition Intervention (n=27), or an environmental health comparison group (n=27) that will receive an Integrated Pest Management and Green Cleaning intervention with the same format and visit frequency. Briefly, the Nutrition Technical Assistance Intervention and comparison group will consist of three encounters with our intervention team: two 60-90 minutes virtual one-on-one visits scheduled at the convenience of the family child care home provider and a 3-hour virtual group class session with other providers. Total contact time with intervention staff will be 6 hours. All participants will receive a toolkit. Providers will complete either intervention virtually over a period of three months.; Participating family child care home providers in rural counties will be randomized to either the Nutrition Intervention (n=27), or an environmental health comparison group (n=27) that will receive an Integrated Pest Management and Green Cleaning intervention with the same format and visit frequency. Briefly, the Nutrition Technical Assistance Intervention and comparison group will consist of three encounters with our intervention team: two 60-90 minutes virtual one-on-one visits scheduled at the convenience of the family child care home provider and a 3-hour virtual group class session with other providers. Total contact time with intervention staff will be 6 hours. All participants will receive a toolkit. Providers will complete either intervention virtually over a period of three months.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Randomized trial where family child care home providers are randomized to either nutrition or environmental health technical assistance intervention. Interventions are matched for time and contact.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: early childhood education; family childcare home; food environment