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A Community-Engaged Approach to Develop and Implement a Behavioral Infant Obesity Prevention Program for Marginalized
Cathleen Odar Stough1, Katlyn Garr, Julia Rabin
1Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (Dr Odar Stough, Gates, St. Pe, Powers, and Pallotto); Healthy Lifestyles Center, Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (Garr); Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL (Rabin); Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH (Combs and Ammerman); Schubert Research Clinic, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (Summer); Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH (Ammerman, Folger, Vaughn, and Woo); Every Child Succeeds, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH (Ammerman, Folger, Frey, Clark, and Berndsen); Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH (Folger and Woo); Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH (Frey); Division of Emergency Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH (Vaughn); and Educational and Community-Based Action Research, University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice & Human Services, Cincinnati, OH (Vaughn).
Background:
Community-engaged approaches to health interventions can improve program feasibility and suitability, reduce attrition, and improve health outcomes. The current paper (1) describes the community-engaged development and delivery of an infant obesity prevention program, and (2) presents program feasibility and acceptability data.
Methods:
Healthy Eating for My Infant (HEMI) was developed using a multiphase approach with community stakeholders, including a qualitative needs assessment, action planning, and feedback from community stakeholders. Healthy Eating for My Infant addressed nutrition/feeding education, behavior-change techniques, and mental health/stress as related to infant feeding through 6 home visits with health behavior coaches and family support peers and text messaging support with other program mothers. Fifteen mother-infant dyads enrolled in a home visiting program serving primarily families from marginalized backgrounds were randomized to receive HEMI in a small feasibility trial.
Results:
Delivery of HEMI was feasible with high retention (86.7%) and session completion (84.0%). Families reported high acceptability of the program; health behavior coaches and family support peers delivering the program perceived that HEMI was helpful for families and that families felt heard and supported.
Conclusion:
Healthy Eating for My Infant serves as an example of a multiphase community-engaged approach to develop future programs targeting health behavior change among children and families from marginalized backgrounds.
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