Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls: Outcome Evaluation (FFFIPG)

Baylor College of Medicine

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01481948

H-27505

R01MD005814 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this project is to reduce health disparities in obesity risk among 8-10 year old African American girls using a culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate internet-based program with no face-to-face interaction. This study will conduct an outcome evaluation to test short and longer term effects on obesity risk.

Full description

This research will conduct an outcome evaluation on a promising web based obesity prevention program for 8-10 year old African American girls. A pilot study with 80 girls established its feasibility: recruitment goals were met; attrition rates were < 10%; logon rates to the online program were 74.5%; and statistically significant increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and time spent being physically active were observed. The outcome evaluation will recruit 400 child-parent pairs to examine short and longer term effects of the program on obesity risk. It will also conduct mediation analyses to examine pathways of effect. At the end of the study, the web based program will be hosted on the CNRC web site. Although the use of the internet as a method for changing health behavior is not new, the use of an internet program alone, with no face to face interaction, is novel. This is one of the first programs to attempt this, particularly in an at-risk population.

Enrollment: 342 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 8 to 10 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 8-10 years old
• healthy
• African American
• parent willing to participate in data collection
• internet access
• personal email address

Exclusion criteria

• mental, physical, or medical conditions that limit fruit-vegetable consumption, physical activity, or ability to fully participate in the program and/or complete baseline and post assessment data collection
• taking medications that influence dietary behaviors, appetite, and/or physical activity

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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342 participants in 3 patient groups

story plus behaviorial procedures

Experimental group

Description:

The girls randomized to this arm of the study will view an interactive story about 6 8-10 year old African American girls who seek to find clues to solve a mystery about the town in which they live. The episodes will contain information about healthy nutrition and physical activity, as well as basic information about physical activity and kitchen safety tips, developmentally appropriate recipes, and portion sizes. Girls randomized to this arm of the study will also engage in key behavior change procedures, such as goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls

story only

Active Comparator group

Description:

The girls randomized to this arm of the study will view an interactive story about 6 8-10 year old African American girls who seek to find clues to solve a mystery about the town in which they live. The episodes will contain information about healthy nutrition and physical activity, as well as basic information about physical activity and kitchen safety tips, developmentally appropriate recipes, and portion sizes. Girls randomized to this arm of the study will not engage in key behavior change procedures, such as goal setting, problem solving, and self monitoring.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Food, Fun, & Fitness Internet Program for Girls

Wait list control

No Intervention group

Description:

This group will participate in data collection only; after the 3rd data collection point, they will be given access to the intervention