Background
Pediatric primary care is an important setting for addressing obesity prevention.
Objective
The Healthy Homes/Healthy Kids 5‐10 randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of an obesity prevention intervention integrating pediatric primary care provider counseling and parent‐targeted phone coaching.
Methods
Children aged 5 to 10 years with a BMI between the 70th and 95th percentile and their parents were recruited from pediatric primary care clinics. Participants received well‐child visit provider counseling about obesity and safety/injury prevention and were then randomized to a 14‐session phone‐based obesity prevention (OP; n = 212) or safety and injury prevention contact control (CC; n = 209) intervention. The primary outcome was 12 and 24‐month child BMI percentile.
Results
There was no overall significant treatment effect on child BMI percentile. Caloric intake was significantly lower among OP compared with CC participants at 12 months (P < .005). In planned subgroup analyses, OP condition girls had significantly lower BMI percentile (P < .05) and BMI z‐score (P < .02) at 12 and 24 months relative to CC girls and were less likely to be overweight (38.0% vs 53.0%, P < .01) or (obese 3.4% vs 8.8%, P < .10) at follow‐up.
Conclusions and Relevance
An obesity prevention intervention integrating brief provider counseling and parent‐targeted phone counseling did not impact 12 and 24‐month BMI status overall but did have a significant impact on BMI in girls.