Exploring a theory of change: Are increases in parental empowerment associated with healthier weight-related parenting practices?

Introduction: Parent health-related empowerment is defined as the process by which parents realize control over their life situation and take action to promote a healthier lifestyle. For decades, researchers have described the theoretical potential of empowerment in health promotion efforts, though few have empirically examined this hypothesized relationship. This study is one of the first to examine the relationship between parental empowerment and healthy weight parenting practices (i.

Summer Weight Gain Among Preschool-Aged Children With Obesity: An Observational Study in Head Start.

School-aged children gain weight most rapidly in summer, but few studies have investigated summer weight gain among preschool-aged children. We fit continuous linear spline mixed models to test for accelerated summer weight gain among 2,044 children attending 16 Boston-area Head Start programs between fall 2016 and spring 2019. Academic year and summer rates of change in modified body mass index z-score differed (P < .

Acceptability and appropriateness of a novel parent-staff co-leadership model for childhood obesity prevention in Head Start: a qualitative interview study.

Background: Peer leadership can be an effective strategy for implementing health programs, benefiting both program participants and peer leaders. To realize such benefits, the peer leader role must be appropriate for the community context. Also, peer leaders must find their role acceptable (i.

A typology of dietary and anthropometric measures of nutritional need among children across districts and parliamentary constituencies in India, 2016.

Background: Anthropometry is the most commonly used approach for assessing nutritional need among children. Anthropometry alone, however, cannot differentiate between the two immediate causes of undernutrition: inadequate diet vs disease. We present a typology of nutritional need by simultaneously considering dietary and anthropometric measures, dietary and anthropometric failures (DAF), and assess its distribution among children in India.

Dietary Variation among Children Meeting and Not Meeting Minimum Dietary Diversity: An Empirical Investigation of Food Group Consumption Patterns among 73,036 Children in India.

Background: Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is a widely used indicator of adequate dietary micronutrient density for children 6-23 mo old. MDD food-group data remain underutilized, despite their potential for further informing nutrition programs and policies.

Objectives: We aimed to describe the diets of children meeting MDD and not meeting MDD in India using food group data, nationally and subnationally.

Communities for Healthy Living (CHL) A Community-based Intervention to Prevent Obesity in Low-Income Preschool Children: Process Evaluation Protocol.

Background: Process evaluation can illuminate barriers and facilitators to intervention implementation as well as the drivers of intervention outcomes. However, few obesity intervention studies have documented process evaluation methods and results. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) requires that process evaluation methods be developed to (a) prioritize community members' power to adapt the program to local needs over strict adherence to intervention protocols, (b) share process evaluation data with implementers to maximize benefit to participants, and (c) ensure partner organizations are not overburdened.