| Summary: |
The rates of childhood overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) significantly increased in the past decades. The prevalence of children with both OW and OB (OW/OB children) in Portugal is one of the highest in the European Union and in the OECD area.
A comprehensive approach to prevent and treat childhood OW and OB is needed. Since parents have a crucial role in children's diet and physical activity, interventions should include the family's lifestyle and focus on parenting practices. Programs targeting parents by increasing parents'awareness and responsibility in providing environments that lead children to healthy behaviors are imperative in the treatment of childhood OW and OB.
Considering the beneficial effects of parents as agents of change in pediatric weight management, this study's purpose is to implement and evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of Group Lifestyle Triple P (GLTP) in a Portuguese sample of parents of OW/OB children. This is particularly relevant as, to date, there are no such structured interventions available in Portugal.
GLTP is the only evidence-based program that teaches parents of children with OW (not only with OB) to use positive parenting in order to promote a healthy lifestyle in their families, through healthy eating and physical activity. It stems from the Triple P - Positive Parenting Program and targets parents of OW/OB children aged 5 to 10 through a 14-session intervention. It aims to decrease children's weight and weight-related problem behavior, by increasing parents' self-efficacy in managing the child's behavior, and by decreasing the use of ineffective parenting practices.
To accomplish the study's purposes, a RCT with parents of OW and OB children and a change process analysis will be conducted. The outcome variables include the child's anthropometric measures and weight-related problem behavior, parents' self-efficacy in managing the child's weight-related problem, parental feeding style, parenting practices, par  |
Summary
The rates of childhood overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) significantly increased in the past decades. The prevalence of children with both OW and OB (OW/OB children) in Portugal is one of the highest in the European Union and in the OECD area.
A comprehensive approach to prevent and treat childhood OW and OB is needed. Since parents have a crucial role in children's diet and physical activity, interventions should include the family's lifestyle and focus on parenting practices. Programs targeting parents by increasing parents'awareness and responsibility in providing environments that lead children to healthy behaviors are imperative in the treatment of childhood OW and OB.
Considering the beneficial effects of parents as agents of change in pediatric weight management, this study's purpose is to implement and evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of Group Lifestyle Triple P (GLTP) in a Portuguese sample of parents of OW/OB children. This is particularly relevant as, to date, there are no such structured interventions available in Portugal.
GLTP is the only evidence-based program that teaches parents of children with OW (not only with OB) to use positive parenting in order to promote a healthy lifestyle in their families, through healthy eating and physical activity. It stems from the Triple P - Positive Parenting Program and targets parents of OW/OB children aged 5 to 10 through a 14-session intervention. It aims to decrease children's weight and weight-related problem behavior, by increasing parents' self-efficacy in managing the child's behavior, and by decreasing the use of ineffective parenting practices.
To accomplish the study's purposes, a RCT with parents of OW and OB children and a change process analysis will be conducted. The outcome variables include the child's anthropometric measures and weight-related problem behavior, parents' self-efficacy in managing the child's weight-related problem, parental feeding style, parenting practices, parental self-regulation, and parental perception of change. |
| Observations: |
In addition, the following activities were also performed:
1) Project Registration
a. The LifeStyle project was registered at the Open Science Framework platform, available at https://osf.io/kvd7n/?view_only=455c4032d61b49dd9eb269bc900bb571
b. The randomized clinical trial registry was made at the ISRCTN platform of BMC Springer Nature, under the registry number ISRCTN44687723, available at https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN44687723
c. The project was registered on the EUROQOL platform for the use of the EQ-5D-Y (quality of life instrument) under the registration number 27404.
2) Psychometric studies
The psychometric study of the Portuguese version of 3 instruments was carried out: Lifestyle Behavior Checklist, Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire and Physical Activity Parenting Practices.
The respective manuscripts are under submission (1) or revision (2).
3) Dissemination of the project
The project's website social networks were continuously updated and promoted.
Prof. Sanne Gerards, member of the research group and affiliated professor at Maastricht University, held a lecture with the title “The evaluation of lifestyle interventions: challenges and lessons learned” on June 30, 2021 at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto (https://sigarra.up.pt/fpceup/en/noticias_geral.ver_noticia?p_nr=60477) |