Baby-Act Intervention to Prevent Excessive Infant Weight Gain: Development, Implementation, Lessons Learned, and...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Pediatrics
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Limited interventions exist for preventing excessive infant weight gain in low-income Hispanic populations.
• Early life interventions are crucial for establishing healthy weight trajectories.
• The WIC program serves a key demographic for targeted health initiatives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of the Baby-Act trial, a multi-component intervention.
• To assess adherence and fidelity to the intervention among participants.
• To identify lessons learned and future applications for preventing infant obesity.

Main Methods:

• Cluster-randomized controlled trial involving mother/infant WIC participants in Puerto Rico.
• Multi-modal intervention from pregnancy to one year, including responsive feeding, infant activation, healthy sleep, and limiting sedentary behaviors.
• Weekly online lessons, reinforced by text messages and dietitian calls, based on behavioral change theories.

Main Results:

• Participant adherence varied: 45.7% for pregnancy lessons and 31.4% for infant lessons.
• Average lesson completion was 19, with some participants completing multiple lessons weekly.
• Adherence to monthly dietitian calls was 42.3%, with an average of 5 calls completed per participant.

Conclusions:

• Overall adherence to intervention components was low.
• Despite low adherence, core messages were effectively communicated due to continuous reinforcement.
• Recommendations for future studies include reducing lesson frequency and increasing text messages and media sharing.