A Mobile Health Intervention to Reduce Sweet Beverage Consumption in Latino Children

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Child Development; Child Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Reading Intervention; Behavioral: Beverage Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04754269

20-30664

Details and patient eligibility

About

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is a major contributor to childhood obesity, caries, fatty liver disease, and Type 2 diabetes. Latino children are more likely to consume sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and to suffer from all of the aforementioned conditions. Reading out loud to children from birth through age 5 is critical for the promotion of language and early literacy skills. Children whose parents read aloud to them are more likely to start school with the skills required for early reading success. This is important as reading proficiency in third grade is the best predictor of high school graduation and career success. Latino children are less likely to be read to than non-Hispanic white children and at higher risk of entering kindergarten without critical early literacy skills. Thus, there is a pressing need for interventions to reduce SSB consumption among Latino children as well as interventions that promote reading out loud. Primary care is an optimal setting for such interventions. However, multiple demands on providers' time make it difficult to rely on in-person interventions. For this reason, it is critical to test intervention designs that do not rely directly on health care providers and that can be delivered remotely if needed. The investigators have developed two m-health interventions for Latino parents, one that promotes optimal beverage consumption patterns and one that promotes reading out loud to children. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of these interventions on child beverage intake patterns and the frequency with which parents read to children.

Enrollment: 200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 12 to 59 months old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Parent identifies child as Latino/a/x
• Child age 1 to 5 (12 to 59 months)
• Parent has a cell phone that can receive text messages
• Parent speak English or Spanish

Exclusion criteria

• Child does not feed by mouth

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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200 participants in 2 patient groups

Beverage Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Parents will watch a video that promotes optimal beverage practices for young children. Parents will receive that reinforce and expand on the messages in the video.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Beverage Intervention

Reading Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Parents will watch a video that promotes reading to children. Parents will receive text messages that reinforce and expand on the messages in the video.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Reading Intervention