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The National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a unit of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a two-year grant to ASU’s College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation to study a new primary care intervention program for the treatment of overweight preschool children.

Leigh Small, an assistant professor of nursing at ASU, is the principal investigator for the interdisciplinary research team. Small serves as coordinator of the pediatric nurse practitioner program at the college.

Co-investigators include Bernadette Melnyk, the college’s dean and a distinguished foundation professor in nursing, and biostatistician Mary Mays. Both are faculty members in the college.

Other members of the research team include Catrine Tudor-Locke, an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Wellness, and Jeffery Hampl, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition.

A recent report from the Institute of Medicine revealed that rates of obesity in the preschool child population have doubled, and that 3- to 5-year-olds whose body mass index (BMI) is greater than the 85th percentile of all children in their age group have more than a 40 percent chance of later-life obesity. The report also notes that 21 percent of preschool children ages 2-5 rank in the 85th percentile or greater, which defines those children “at risk for overweight.”

Limited information exists regarding intervention strategies that have been tested with preschool or young school-aged children who are overweight or obese.

The pilot study, the first randomized controlled trial conducted in primary care settings with children of this age, is designed to test the effects of a theoretically based intervention on the physical and mental health outcomes of 50 overweight preschool and young school-aged children (ages 4-7), or those at risk for later-life obesity, and their parents.

PLAY! (Parents Leading Active Youth) is the name of the intervention to be used in the study. Its ultimate goal is to reduce the risk for negative physical and mental health outcomes in 4- to 7-year-old children who are overweight or obese, or at risk for later-life obesity and its adverse co-morbidities, such as Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

PLAY! includes a strong mental health and positive parenting component, in addition to emphasizing healthy weight and weight control by educational information, such as healthy nutrition and activity, motivational support and behavioral skills training.

“Currently, parents are juggling busy work schedules and parenting responsibilities,” Small says. “Identifying elements of family life that can be altered or modified such that young children are regularly offered nutritious, calorically light meals and snacks and routine activity that is built into every day can be very challenging. Equally important is the provision of parenting behavior skills training to equip parents with the necessary abilities to strengthen family habits that will affect healthy child weight gain and maintenance.”

The three-month, four-session program has been designed to fit within the time constraints of a busy pediatric office schedule and a parent’s challenging work schedule. Special attention will be given to subject engagement, and to attrition during the intervention program and the 12-month follow-up, to ensure quality study data. Phone call reminders also will be used to continue to encourage parent engagement.

Terry Olbrysh, terry.olbrysh@asu.edu
(602) 496-0877