Community Health Worker Home Visits for Adults With Uncontrolled Asthma—The Homebase Trial Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective. Parents mentoring other parents as a behavioral intervention for child obesity is novel with limited data describing the experience and dynamics of this approach. This study aimed to describe the experiences of parent mentors and the self-efficacy and attitudes of their mentees in the context of a clinical trial for childhood obesity. Methods. The context for this study was a randomized clinical trial using either parent mentors or a community health worker engaging parents of obese children in behavioral change over six months. Parent mentors were interviewed at the mid-point of the intervention using a semistructured questionnaire to elicit their perceptions and experiences during the process of mentoring. Parent mentees completed a survey assessing their self-efficacy, perception of the parent mentor, and attitudes and beliefs related to their child’s weight. Results. The qualitative analysis of parent mentor interviews indicated high commitment despite their nonprofessional status, facing challenges of engagement with fellow parents and attitudes of persistence and being nonjudgmental. The parent mentee ratings of parent mentors were overall very high and similar to the ratings of a community health worker (paraprofessional). Conclusion. The data suggest that a parent mentor model of intervention for child obesity is an acceptable mode of approaching behavior change in the Hispanic population around childhood obesity with potential for scalability if proven effective.

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A Pilot Study of Parent Mentors for Early Childhood Obesity

Journal of Obesity ◽

10.1155/2016/2609504 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Byron A. Foster ◽

Christian A. Aquino ◽

Mario Gil ◽

Jonathan A. L. Gelfond ◽

Daniel E. Hale

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trial ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Childhood Obesity ◽

Community Health ◽

Health Worker ◽

Community Health Worker ◽

Hispanic Population ◽

Score Change ◽

Sustained Effects ◽

Early Childhood Obesity

Objective.To assess the feasibility of a parent mentor model of intervention for early childhood obesity using positive deviance-based methods to inform the intervention.Methods.In this pilot, randomized clinical trial, parent-child dyads (age: 2–5) with children whose body mass index (BMI) was ≥95th percentile were randomized to parent mentor intervention or community health worker comparison. The child’s height and weight were measured at baseline, after the six-month intervention, and six months after the intervention. Feasibility outcomes were recruitment, participation, and retention. The primary clinical outcome was BMIz-score change.Results.Sixty participants were enrolled, and forty-eight completed the six-month intervention. At baseline, the BMIz-score in the parent mentor group was 2.63 (SD = 0.65) and in the community health worker group it was 2.61 (SD = 0.89). For change in BMIz-score over time, there was no difference by randomization group at the end of the intervention: −0.02 (95% CI: −0.26, 0.22). At the end of the intervention, the BMIz-score for the parent mentor group was 2.48 (SD = 0.58) and for the community health worker group it was 2.45 (SD = 0.91), both reduced from baseline,p<0.001.Conclusion.The model of a parent mentor clinical trial is feasible, and both randomized groups experienced small, sustained effects on adiposity in an obese, Hispanic population.

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