Family dietary coaching to improve nutritional intakes and body weight control: a randomized controlled trial

To test the hypothesis that family dietary coaching would improve nutritional intakes and weight control in free-living (noninstitutionalized) children and parents.

Randomized controlled trial.

Fifty-four elementary schools in Paris, France.

One thousand thirteen children (mean age, 7.7 years) and 1013 parents (mean age, 40.5 years).

Families were randomly assigned to group A (advised to reduce fat and to increase complex carbohydrate intake), group B (advised to reduce both fat and sugar and to increase complex carbohydrate intake), or a control group (given no advice). Groups A and B received monthly phone counseling and Internet-based monitoring for 8 months.

Changes in nutritional intake, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), fat mass, physical activity, blood indicators, and quality of life.

Compared with controls, participants in the intervention groups achieved their nutritional targets for fat intake and to a smaller extent for sugar and complex carbohydrate intake, leading to a decrease in energy intake (children, P < .001; parents, P = .02). Mean changes in body mass index were similar among children (group A, + 0.05, 95% confidence interval [CI], - 0.06 to 0.16; group B, + 0.10, 95% CI, - 0.03 to 0.23; control group, + 0.13, 95% CI, 0.04-0.22; P = .45), but differed in parents (group A, + 0.13, 95% CI, - 0.01 to 0.27; group B, - 0.02, 95% CI, - 0.14 to 0.11; control group, + 0.24, 95% CI, 0.13-0.34; P = .001), with a significant difference between group B and the control group (P = .01).

Family dietary coaching improves nutritional intake in free-living children and parents, with beneficial effects on weight control in parents. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00456911.