Description Module
The Description Module contains narrative descriptions of the clinical trial, including a brief summary and detailed description. These descriptions provide important information about the study's purpose, methodology, and key details in language accessible to both researchers and the general public.
Description Module path is as follows:
Study -> Protocol Section -> Description Module
Description Module
Ignite Creation Date:
2025-12-24 @ 11:03 PM
Ignite Modification Date:
2025-12-24 @ 11:03 PM
NCT ID:
NCT03334669
Brief Summary:
The Communities for Healthy Living (CHL) program is a family-focused intervention to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors including diet and physical activity among children (age 3-to 5-years) and their families, enrolled in Head Start.
Detailed Description:
This evaluation will test the effectiveness of a family-focused intervention, Communities for Healthy Living (CHL), implemented through Head Start. Over 20% of preschool-aged children in the US experience overweight or obese. Because obesity prevention depends heavily on the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors early in life, preventive efforts offer a higher promise for success if they are family-centered. Effective family-centered interventions for obesity prevention in preschool-aged children, however, remain elusive. While a number of interventions have shown positive effects on child Body Mass Index (BMI), results are inconsistent and short term effects are not maintained. What is more, because families at greatest risk of childhood obesity - including low-income, single-parent, and ethnic minority families - are the most difficult to recruit and retain, results are often limited in their applicability to high risk populations.
In response, the researchers have partnered with Head Start to develop and test a new approach to family-centered childhood obesity prevention that addresses family engagement upfront. The CHL program will be refined and rigorously tested for efficacy in collaboration with Head Start programs in the greater Boston area, which collectively serve over 2000 low-income children each year. Building on a previous pilot study, the investigators will broaden the parent-centered Community Based Participatory Research approach and include Head Start staff in the decision making and implementation process, refine intervention components, and expand technical assistance protocols to support Head Start ownership of CHL while ensuring implementation fidelity. In addition, consistent with the overarching theoretical framework (Family Ecological Model), neighborhood-level socioeconomic, food and physical activity environments around family homes and examine their impact on intervention outcomes will be measured to inform future scale up efforts.
Study:
NCT03334669
Study Brief:
Protocol Section:
NCT03334669