Parent-Based Physical Activity Intervention for Black Families

University of North Carolina System

Status: Suspended

Conditions: Physical Inactivity

Treatments: Behavioral: Physical Activity Phone Calls and Notebook

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05910671

21-001263

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is an 8-week parent-based physical activity intervention focusing on increasing physical activity in preschool-aged children. The participants will be randomized into two groups: control and intervention. During the 8 weeks those in the intervention group will receive weekly newsletters and have weekly phone calls with a physical activity coach. The material in weekly newsletters and focus of the phone calls will be on behavior changes related to physical activity. Parents will be encouraged to complete physical activity alone and with their child. The control group will not have any contact with study staff during the 8-week intervention and continue with normal behaviors. Physical activity levels in the parents and children will be measures before and after the intervention.

Full description

This research will examine how preschool-aged children's physical activity levels will be affected based off an intervention that encourages physical activity engagement between parents and children. A secondary purpose is to determine if the intervention impacts the children's body mass index. Black parents with a child between the ages of 2-5 will be recruited to participate in the study. Before the intervention begins, parents will complete questionnaires on demographics, health history, physical activity knowledge, family physical activity, and parenting styles. Then both parents and children will have weight, height, resting heart rate and blood pressure measured. Finally, the parents and children will be given physical activity monitors to wear for 7 days. After wearing the activity monitors the dyads will be randomized into either a control or intervention group. The control group will continue with their normal activities for 8 weeks. Those in the intervention group will receive weekly newsletters and a 30-min/week telephone call with an activity coach over 8 weeks. The newsletters and phone calls will discuss information related to physical activity change. After the 8-week time period, all parent-child dyads will complete the same questionnaires and measurements and wear the activity monitors again.

Enrollment: 52 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• adults who are 19 years old or older
• adult has a child who is between 2-5 years old
• child must be living with the parent
• parent identifies as Black/African American

Exclusion criteria

• parent is currently meeting physical activity recommendations
• parent is currently pregnant or < 6 weeks post-pregnancy
• child has condition that restricts physical activity
• parent is unable to speak or write in English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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52 participants in 2 patient groups

Physical Activity Phone Calls and Notebook

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention will last 8 weeks. As part of the intervention the participants (parents) will receive a notebook with weekly newsletters that discuss behavioral strategies for physical activity changes, note pages, listing of local parks, and age-appropriate physical activities that parents and young children can do together. The intervention group will also have individual weekly telephone meetings with a physical activity coach. The weekly meeting is expected to last approximately 30 minutes. During this meeting, participants will discuss that week's behavioral strategy to promote physical activity, report on the past week's physical activity goals, failures and successes, and set goals for the next week. Each week parents will be asked to set a goal to be physically active with their child and a goal to be physically active alone.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Physical Activity Phone Calls and Notebook

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

During the 8 weeks the participants in the control group will neither receive the intervention material nor have any contact with physical activity coaches. They will continue interacting with their young child as normal.