Peer Counseling in Family-Based Treatment for Childhood Obesity
Condition: Childhood Obesity
MeSH terms: Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      To evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of peers as interventionists in delivering
      family-based behavioral pediatric weight control intervention.
    

Detailed description: 
      The current study seeks to test the alternative approach of partnering with families, and
      more specifically parents who have previously received family-based weight control treatment,
      to serve as peer interventionists to deliver this treatment to other families. Peer-led
      interventions, common for other health behaviors among adults, has not been previously
      developed or tested for family-based pediatric weight control intervention. Peer-delivered
      interventions considerably reduce the high costs of delivering behavioral interventions and
      could increase the availability of those able to deliver the intervention. In fact, peer
      interventionists' may be better able to deliver intervention than professionals to families,
      given these peers have faced similar challenges and barriers to behavior change within their
      own families. It is also possible that continued engagement in the behavior change process
      through delivering this intervention to other families could improve peer interventionists'
      own family's long-term health behaviors and outcomes.

      Before utilizing a peer delivery approach more broadly, the novel approach of peer-delivered
      intervention requires development of training/supervision for peer interventionists and
      initial evaluation of acceptability/feasibility and efficacy. Therefore, this project has the
      following aims:

        1. To develop procedures for training and supervising of parents to be peer
           interventionists, based on our prior intervention delivery experience and family
           advisory board input

        2. To evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of peers as interventionists in delivering
           family-based behavioral pediatric weight control intervention

        3. To compare change in weight and health behavior outcomes of overweight/obese children
           and parents receiving peer- versus professionally-delivered intervention

      This study begins to address the high cost and limited availability of the needed, but
      intense, family-based pediatric weight control intervention required for efficacy. This
      approach expands the interdisciplinary nature of this work by engaging the resources and
      assets of previously treated families to contribute to the reduction of the burden of
      childhood obesity. Led by a project director (Saelens) and intervention coordinator (Scholz)
      with over 20 years of combined experience in family-based pediatric weight control
      intervention, this project moves this intervention in a different and important direction.
    

Intervention name(s): Family-based behavioral intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): This behavioral treatment includes behavioral skills training and accountability, including food and activity self-monitoring, goal setting, and home environment change.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Childhood Obesity