Reducing Health Disparities in Childhood Obesity

University of South Carolina651 enrolled

Overview

In this study, we will address cost barriers to participating in summer programs and hypothesize this will lead to marked improvements in children's obesogenic behaviors and a reduction in excessive, unhealthy weight gain over summer.

For this study, we will rigorously test the impact of providing access to existing community-operated summer programs on weight status (i.e., BMI z-score) and obesogenic behaviors of 1st-3rd grade children from low-income households. Using a pragmatic, Type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized design, we will compare changes in weight status and obesogenic behaviors of children from low-income households randomized to one of two conditions: free summer programming or comparison/control.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

651

Conditions

Obesity

Interventions

Free Summer ProgrammingBEHAVIORAL

The summer day camps are not singularly focused, such as sport camps or academic only camps. Rather, the camps provide indoor and outdoor opportunities for children to be physically active each day, provide enrichment and academic programming, as well as provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks. To standardize programming, the schools operate their camps on the same daily schedules which are developed by the same district-level personnel, with identical programmatic content delivered across all schools. The schools also provide the same meals to all children enrolled. The meals adhere to the Summer Food Service Program nutrition guidelines and are reimbursed through existing federal food programs.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 6 YearsMax age: 10 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1st through 3rd grade students in the participating schools. Exclusion Criteria: The only exclusion criteria will be the diagnosis of an intellectual disability, such as: Autism Spectrum Disorder Down Syndrome Fragile X Fetal Alcohol and/or a physical disability, such as wheelchair use This decision was made because of the added resources required to evaluate these children, as well as the inability to sample enough of these children to adequately draw conclusions. No other exclusion criteria will be used.

Locations (2)

University of South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Michael Beets

Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

BMI Age-Sex Specific Z-Score

Change in Body Mass Index age=sex specific z-score. 0 represents the 50th percentile. A reduction of 0.15 is considered clinically meaningful in an already obese population

Time frame: Baseline and 3 months

Secondary Outcomes

Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity

Accelerometer-derived moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (minutes per day)

Time frame: 2 months

Sleep

Accelerometer-derived sleep (minutes per day)

Time frame: 2 months

Diet

Parent report of child dietary intake

Time frame: 2 months

Screen Time

Parent report of screen time usage (minutes per day)

Time frame: 2 months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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