Starting Healthy Staying Healthy Pilot Trial

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to determine whether a reduction in toddlers' and preschoolers' exposure to television advertising leads to a change in their diet.

Detailed Description
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TV viewing is among the most significant features of childhood. In the past generation or two, new technologies have made media viewing more ubiquitous and frequent: 30% of children eat regularly in front of TV, one-third under 6 have TVs in their bedrooms, and 30% make TV part of bedtime routines. By the age of 2 years, 90% of children watch TV or videos regularly. Among those who watch, average viewing is 1.5 hours daily by age 2. Yet the effects of this early viewing are poorly understood. In this study, we focus on children's diet, because children's food preferences have been shown to be easily influenced by advertising, and children's non-educational programming is heavy with advertising for poor nutritional-quality foods. We will recruit 70 families with children ages 24-30 months and randomize them to either a television-minimization intervention (the intervention arm) or a toddler safety and injury prevention arm (the control arm). A case manager will actively work with the intervention arm participants to strategize ways of minimizing their media exposure. In addition, families in the intervention arm will get access both to a study website and to a monthly newsletter. The website and newsletter will inform participants of the potential hazards of early media exposure, and will offer tips for alternative activities and strategies for keeping children occupied while the parent gets a much-needed break. The control arm will have no case manager, but will have access to a website and newsletter that will emphasize toddler safety and injury-prevention themes. At the conclusion of the 4-month trial, we will assess (a) whether the study participants regularly accessed their respective websites; (b) whether the intervention-arm participants have different beliefs and attitudes about television for toddlers; and (c) whether fewer intervention-arm children watch TV compared to control-arm infants. The comparison group will receive a similar intervention, except that it will not mention television viewing, and will instead focus on toddler and preschooler safety and injury-prevention topics, such as the appropriate use of car seats, smoke detectors, hot water heater temperature, safe gun storage, and other similar topics.

Official Title
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Starting Healthy Staying Healthy Pilot Trial

Conditions
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Obesity

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: TV modification
* Behavioral: safety and injury prevention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Must watch at least 1.5 hours of television a day on average Must speak English at home Residence in or near Seattle Exclusion Criteria: Developmental delay

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 2 Years
Maximum Age: 5 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: 1<br>Parents receive tailored health-behavior change messages designed to reduce their child's exposure to televised food commercials. Intervention is delivered by a case manager, by a website, and by periodic newsletters. | Behavioral: TV modification<br>* Parents receive a health behavior-change intervention consisting of 1 in-person visit from a case manager, followed by phone and e-mail contact at least monthly. The intervention is designed to promote healthy TV viewing, including viewing fewer commercials, by the target child aged 2-5 years old, and uses health behavior change theory and social cognitive theory.<br>|
| Active Comparator: Control<br>Parents of children ages 2-5 receive behavioral-change counseling around toddler & preschooler safety and injury prevention. | Behavioral: safety and injury prevention<br>* Parents receive behavior-change counseling around toddler and preschooler safety and injury prevention.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Consumption of foods frequently advertised on television (sugary cereals, sugary beverages, candy, fast food, salty snacks) |  | at conclusion of trial and 6 months post-intervention | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Diet, reducing, Television, Child Behavior