Expanding Health System Intervention Through The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program Partnership (WHISPER)

Wake Forest University (WFU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity, Childhood

Treatments: Behavioral: Pilot Intervention to reduce SSB consumption in children and families enrolled in WIC

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05356338

IRB00073800

Details and patient eligibility

About

Pilot test the health system-based intervention to improve family beverage choices and promote water consumption, engaging WIC nutritionists to augment the intervention with follow-up and counseling of families at regularly-scheduled WIC appointments in a small randomized trial among 30 WIC-enrolled families.

Full description

This is a pilot 2-arm randomized trial among 30 WIC enrolled families of children 6 months through 4 years old who currently over-consume sugary drinks. The study team will randomize families to either an intervention group, that will receive a behavioral intervention consisting of two educational videos, a water promotion toolkit, mobile phone app, series of educational phone calls and extra counseling from WIC nutritionists, or to a control group that will not receive this intervention. The study team will compare 6-month change in child and parental beverage consumption between groups. Exploratory analyses will examine child weight (kg) and Body Mass Index (BMI) z-score (BMIz) outcomes, and compare intervention effects across race/ethnic groups.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 months to 4 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Child 6 months - 4 years old who receives health care attention at Wake Forest pediatric or family medicine practices
• Child enrolled in WIC
• Child consumes 2 or more SSB and/or fruit juice total per day
• Child with no chronic health condition
• Child has not seen nutritionist or visited our family-based weight management clinic in the past year
• Parent/caregiver who has not watch educational video "Get in the Zero Zone"
• Parent/caregiver has a smartphone and reliable internet
• Parent/caregiver able to communicate well in English

Exclusion criteria

• Child doesn't meet age criteria
• Child consumes less than 2 SSB and/or fruit juice total per day
• Child with a chronic health condition
• Child has seen nutritionist or visited our family-based weight management clinic in the past year
• Parent/caregiver has watched educational video "Get in the Zero Zone"
• Parent/caregiver has completed interview or usability test
• Parent/caregiver doesn't have a smartphone or reliable internet
• Parent/caregiver not able to communicate well in English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group participants in this study will not receive any intervention as is the current standard of clinical care for excess sugary drink consumption. They will receive monthly check-in reminders from research staff to promote engagement and retention and will participate in data collection visits at baseline, 3 and 6 months.

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Intervention participants will receive a 6-month behavioral intervention with the following components: A water promotion toolkit that includes water bottles, water flavor infusers, stickers to decorate bottles, children's book about water consumption, and instructions for other intervention components (how to view videos, download app, and prepare for calls) Two brief educational videos: a 5-minute video about healthy drink choices for the family and a 3-min video educating residents about local water. Ready, Set Gulp! app for families that will help all family members track their beverage intake, find out how much water and sugar they are consuming, set goals, compete for points, answer quiz questions and create new recipes for flavor infused water. A series of 14 interactive voice response phone calls to parents over 6 months that educate parents on topics relevant to improving family drink choices. Two counseling sessions by a WIC nutritionist at months 2 and 4

Treatment:

Behavioral: Pilot Intervention to reduce SSB consumption in children and families enrolled in WIC