A pilot study of enhanced operation fit: The feasibility of a camp-based health intervention for ethnically diverse families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Background: Obesity rates are higher in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (DD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. In TD children, family-based (FB) interventions for obesity are the most effective interventions. Research addressing obesity interventions for children with IDD is limited.

Method: We adapted a community-based obesity intervention created for TD children for children with IDD and added a parent education component. The current study examined the feasibility of Enhanced-Operation Fit, a camp-based intervention created in order to reduce weight, and improve health behavior outcomes. Participants were 16 children (68.8% male; M  = 13.15, SD  = 1.62) and their parents.

Results: Results indicated that incorporating a daily parent education group limited recruitment potential, but showed promising preliminary improvements in parent feeding and child eating behaviors.

Conclusions: Health interventions for children with IDD are greatly needed and the current study may be a cost and time-efficient intervention to help address this public health crisis.