Childhood obesity prevention in rural settings: background, rationale, and study design of '4-Health,' a parent-only intervention.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Childhood obesity in rural communities is a serious but understudied problem. The current experiment aims to assess a wide range of obesity risk factors among rural youth and to offer an 8-month intervention program for parents to reduce obesity risk in their preteen child.

Methods/design

A two-group, repeated measures design is used to assess the effectiveness of the 4-Health intervention program. Assessments include anthropometric measures, child self-evaluations, parent self-evaluations, and parent evaluations of child. County Extension agents from 21 rural Montana counties recruit approximately 150 parent-child dyads and counties are semi-randomly assigned to the active intervention group (4-Health Educational Program) or a "best-practices" (Healthy Living Inf

SUBMITTER: Lynch WC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3404898 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature