None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
In Australia, 30% of children are overweight or obese, which increases their lifetime risk of many negative health concerns (e.g., type II diabetes, heart disease, mental illness). Poor health behaviours are also becoming common early in life. For example, 76% of Australian children aged 2-4 years are not meeting physical activity and screen-time guidelines and approximately 25% are developmentally vulnerable when they start school. Family-based lifestyle programs play an important role in improving children’s health behaviours and reducing their risk of obesity. However, a recent review determined that mothers represent an overwhelming majority of participating parents in these programs (93%). This is greatly concerning, as fathers have a key influence on their children’s weight and health behaviours from a young age. Targeting the early childhood period is critical as optimal development at this life stage is very important for future health and wellbeing. Without early intervention, poor health in early childhood will have far-reaching implications for families and communities and worsen inequalities and societal divisions. In addition, childhood obesity is known to track throughout life and poor lifestyle behaviours can be entrenched at a very young age, which makes these outcomes very difficult to reverse later in childhood. In this study, we will develop and pilot test the ‘Healthy Youngsters, Healthy Dads’ intervention, which will be the first father-focused obesity prevention program for preschool-aged children. In the program, fathers will receive the knowledge, parenting skills and motivation to improve their health and become healthy role models for their young children.
Interventions
The 'Healthy Youngsters Healthy Dads' intervention will include:
- 1 x 'dads-only' information workshop (5 hours; face-to-face)
- 8 x 'dads-and-kids' practical sessions (1.5 hours/week; face-to-face)
Both components will be delivered at the University of Newcastle by chief investigators Professor Philip Morgan and Doctor Alyce Barnes, who are researchers with health and physical education qualifications and over 10 years experience each in delivered healthy lifestyle interventions.
At the dad
The 'Healthy Youngsters Healthy Dads' intervention will include: - 1 x 'dads-only' information workshop (5 hours; face-to-face) - 8 x 'dads-and-kids' practical sessions (1.5 hours/week; face-to-face) Both components will be delivered at the University of Newcastle by chief investigators Professor Philip Morgan and Doctor Alyce Barnes, who are researchers with health and physical education qualifications and over 10 years experience each in delivered healthy lifestyle interventions. At the dads-only workshop, fathers will be taught evidence-based parenting strategies to improve their children's physical activity, eating habits, social-emotional well-being and sports skills. For each dads-and-kids practical, the session will be broken up into 2 components: (i) a 20-minute welcome session conducted for fathers and children together; (ii) a 55-minute practical session where fathers and children participate together The dads-and-kids sessions will focus on: o healthy eating for families o fundamental movement skills (e.g. throwing, kicking, striking and catching); o rough and tumble play; o health-related fitness and o fun and active household and backyard games In addition to these sessions, participants will receive the following program resources: - A t-shirt and water bottle - A sports skill book developed for this study with a range of activities fathers and children can do to improve children's fundamental movement skills at home - A log book to complete home activities (e.g., step count monitoring) - A series of short informational videos for fathers and mothers to review at home, which will align with the information presented at each session Intervention adherence will be assessed via: - Attendance records at the session - Activities completed in the log book and sports skill book
Sponsors
Prof. Philip Morgan
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Single group
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
3 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Men can participate if they: - Are a father, step father or male guardian of a child aged 3-5 years - Live with their child at least 50% of the week - Are able to attend both assessments - Are able to attend all program sessions - Are able to pass a health-screening questionnaire for physical activity Children can participate if they are 3-5 years old, but not yet attending school
Exclusion criteria
Men will require a doctors clearance to participate if they report any concerns on a pre-exercise screening questionnaire (e.g., history of heart pains during exercise).
Outcome results
None listed