Clinical trial NCT06940817: Cooking HEalthy and Facilitating Early Childhood Development: CHEF-ED Study
Official title: Re-establishing Inter-generational Cooking Education and Improving Diet Quality Through an Integrated Parenting and Healthy Cooking Program for Low-income Families With Young Children
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Teaching Healthy Cooking Skills to Parents and Their Preschool Children
Keywords: Food security
Nutrition education
Cooking practices
Feeding practices
Chronic disease
Lead sponsor: Baylor College of Medicine
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
First posted: 2025-04-23
Enrollment: 300
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 64
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study aims to test a new online program we developed for parents and their preschool children, called CHEF-ED. CHEF-ED focuses on healthy cooking, parental feeding practices, and involving children in home food preparation.

Detailed description: All study activities take place online over a 3-month period, and participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups: the CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group, the Food Delivery Only group, or the control group. Participants will not know to which group they are assigned until after they complete the time point 1 surveys. The assignment will be determined randomly using a computer program (equivalent to flipping a coin).

To test how well the program works, regardless of group assignment, participants are asked to complete surveys at two different time points: Time point 1 = pre-program, shortly after enrollment, and Time point 2 = post-program, about 8-10 weeks later. The surveys take about 2 hours to complete online at each time point and will include questions about the participant's and their child's dietary intake, their cooking frequency/quality, food parenting practices, and program content retention. Surveys will also include questions about family's demographics (such as participant's and their child's date of birth, ethnicity, race, sex, etc.), and household food access.

The CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group receives a one-time home food delivery of healthy cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils, such as cooking oil, spices, whole wheat pasta, low sodium soy sauce, bowls, and recipe books. Participants in this group also receive links to weekly CHEF-ED online lessons via text /email message for 7 weeks. Each weekly lesson will include a short video, infographics, and recipes.

The Food Delivery Only group receives a one-time home food delivery of healthy cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils, but no other program materials.

The control group receives no program materials or food delivery.

About 8-10 weeks after completing the time point 1 surveys, participants will receive links to complete the time point 2 surveys. After completing the post-program surveys, participants who were in the Food Delivery Only or control group will receive additional program materials that were not previously provided due to their group assignment. This means that the Food Delivery Only group, after completing the time point 2 surveys, will receive links to all of the CHEF-ED program materials (videos, infographics, recipes) and, the control group, after completing the time point 2 surveys, will receive the one-time healthy ingredients and kitchen utensils delivery and links to all of the CHEF-ED program materials.

Additionally, participants in the CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group, after the post-program surveys, may be invited to take part in an interview to share their experience with the program. This interview will be conducted over the phone or a video conference platform. The information participants share during the interview, such as suggestions and insights on materials accessibility, will help us improve the program.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Parents/caregivers of preschooler children ages 3 to 5 living in the greater Houston area.
* Must have access to the Internet through a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
* Should be able to read, write, and communicate in English or Spanish.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Parents/caregivers and children who have any kind of food allergies, medical conditions, or dietary restrictions that may affect participation in the program.
* Parents/caregivers under the age of 18.
* Parents/caregivers of children with severe developmental delays.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Child diet quality
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Parent diet quality
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
measure: Parent cooking frequency/quality
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
measure: Food parenting practices
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
measure: Knowledge of best feeding practices
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
Other outcomes:
measure: Sample characteristics
timeFrame: From baseline assessment to the post-intervention assessment. The intervention program is 7 weeks.
Locations:
city: Houston
country: United States
facility: Baylor College of Medicine
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
name: Sheryl O. Hughes, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: