Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Almost a quarter of children aged 4-5 are overweight and the prevalence of obesity currently stands at 9.6%. There is a clear need for intervention in the pre-school years and HENRY���¢��������s (Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young) parent-targeted approach has shown consistently positive results when delivered by trained staff. This study aimed to test whether the HENRY Healthy Families programme was also effective in improving eating behaviour and habits, physical activity, parenting confidence to provide a healthy lifestyle and emotional wellbeing when delivered by trained volunteer mentors. Further analysis explored differences in outcomes from programmes delivered by volunteers or project staff. The programme was delivered one-to-one over 8 weekly sessions of one hour, with outcomes measured at baseline, post-programme, and at 6 months follow-up. Parents (N = 87) reported improvements in parenting confidence, parent and child emotional wellbeing, some family eating behaviours, and consumption of fruit and veg (parent and child) and water (child only), but not in physical activity or consumption of certain snack items. Some of these improvements were maintained at 6 months follow-up. There were no differences in outcomes from programmes delivered by trained volunteers (n = 68) or project staff (n = 18). Parents who received the programme from volunteers reported comparable gains in key health indicators of parents and children to those delivered by project staff, providing tentative evidence that these programmes can be successfully scaled up with delivery by volunteer mentors. Future research should test this model on a larger scale.

Biography

Kim Roberts is Chief Executive of the UK national charity, HENRY. For the last 10 years HENRY has been transforming traditional approaches to obesity prevention, working in partnership with public health departments and academic partners across the UK to develop and test research-based practical interventions to tackle child obesity in the preschool years. Email:kim.roberts@henry.org.uk