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Background: Parents of children with intellectual disability are 1.5–2 times more likely than other parents to report mental health difficulties. There is a lack of clinically effective and cost-effective group well-being interventions designed for family carers of young children with intellectual disability., Aim: To examine the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) intervention., Design: A feasibility study (including randomisation of families into a two-arm trial), questionnaires to assess the feasibility of proposed outcome measures (including resource use and health-related quality of life) and practitioner/family carer interviews. An additional question was included in an online UK survey of families, conducted by the research team to assess usual practice, and a survey of provider organisations., Setting: Families recruited from community contexts (i.e. third sector, local authority services, special schools) and self-referral. The E-PAtS intervention was delivered by trained community-based providers., Participants: Families with at least one child aged 1.5–5 years with an intellectual disability. At least one parent had to have English-language ability (spoken) for E-PAtS programme participation and participants had to provide informed consent., Interventions: E-PAtS intervention – two caregivers from each family invited to eight 2.5-hour group sessions with usual practice. Usual practice – other support provided to the family, including other parenting support., Objectives: To assess randomisation willingness/feasibility, recruitment of providers/parents, retention, usual practice, adherence, fidelity and feasibility of proposed outcome measures (including the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale as the proposed primary outcome measure, and parent anxiety/depression, parenting, family functioning/relationships, child behavioural/emotional problems and adaptive skills, child and parent quality of life, and family services receipt as the proposed secondary outcome measures)., Results: Seventy-four families (95 carers) were recruited from three sites (with 37 families allocated to the intervention). From referrals, the recruitment rate was 65% (95% confidence interval 56% to 74%). Seventy-two per cent of families were retained at the 12-month follow-up (95% confidence interval 60% to 81%). Exploratory regression analysis showed that the mean Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale well-being score was 3.96 points higher in the intervention group (95% confidence interval –1.39 to 9.32 points) at 12 months post randomisation. High levels of data completeness were achieved on returned questionnaires. Interviews ( n  = 25) confirmed that (1) recruitment, randomisation processes and the intervention were acceptable to family carers, E-PAtS facilitators and community staff; (2) E-PAtS delivery were consistent with the logic model; and (3) researchers requesting consent in future for routine data would be acceptable. Recorded E-PAtS sessions demonstrated good fidelity (96% of components present). Adherence (i.e. at least one carer from the family attending five out of eight E-PAtS sessions) was 76%. Health-related quality-of-life and services receipt data were gathered successfully. An online UK survey to assess usual practice ( n  = 673) showed that 10% of families of young children with intellectual disability received any intervention over 12 months. A provider survey ( n  = 15) indicated willingness to take part in future research., Limitations: Obtaining session recordings for fidelity was difficult. Recruitment processes need to be reviewed to improve diversity and strategies are needed to improve primary outcome completion., Conclusions: Study processes were feasible. The E-PAtS intervention was well received and outcomes for families were positive. A barrier to future organisation participation is funding for intervention costs. A definitive trial to test the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of E-PAtS would be feasible., Trial Registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN70419473., Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research ; Vol. 10, No. 2. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information., (Copyright © 2022 Coulman et al. This work was produced by Coulman et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This is an Open Access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaption in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. For attribution the title, original author(s), the publication source – NIHR Journals Library, and the DOI of the publication must be cited.)

Background: Finding solutions to rising levels of obesity continues to be a major public health focus. Social support has an important role in successful weight loss, and digital interventions can reach a large proportion of the population at low cost., Objective: To develop and assess the feasibility and acceptability of an application (app), web- and social support-based intervention in supporting adults with obesity to achieve weight loss goals., Design: Stage 1 – intervention development phase involved three focus groups ( n  = 10) with users, and think-aloud interviews and field testing with another group ( n  = 28). Stage 2 – the intervention and evaluation methods were explored in a feasibility randomised controlled trial with economic and process evaluation., Setting: Greater Glasgow and Clyde, UK., Participants: Adults with a body mass index of ≥ 30kg/m 2 who owned a smartphone and were interested in losing weight were randomised 2 : 1 (intervention : control) and followed up at 12 months. Recruitment took place in April–October 2016., Interventions: The intervention group had access to HelpMeDoIt! for 12 months. This encouraged them to (1) set goals, (2) monitor progress and (3) harness social support by inviting ‘helpers’ from their existing social network. The control group received a healthy lifestyle leaflet., Main Outcome Measures: Data from stage 1 informed the intervention design. Key measures in stage 2 assessed the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and trial methods against prespecified progression criteria. Three primary outcomes were explored: body mass index, diet and physical activity. Secondary outcomes included weight, waist and hip circumference, social support, self-efficacy, motivation, mental health, health-related quality of life, NHS resource use, participant-borne costs and intervention costs. Qualitative interviews with participants ( n  = 26) and helpers ( n  = 9) explored the feasibility and acceptability of the trial methods and intervention., Results: Stage 1 produced (1) a website that provided evidence-based information for lifestyle change and harnessing social support, and (2) an app that facilitated goal-setting, self-monitoring and supportive interaction between participants and their helper(s). Progression criteria were met, demonstrating that the intervention and trial methods were feasible and acceptable. A total of 109 participants (intervention, n  = 73; control, n  = 36) were recruited, with 84 participants (77%: intervention, 71%; control, 89%) followed up at 12 months. Data were successfully collected for most outcome measures (≥ 82% completion). Participants and helpers were generally positive, although helper engagement with the app was low. Of the 54 (74%) participants who downloaded the app, 48 (89%) used it twice or more, 28 helpers enrolled via the app, and 19 (36%) participants interacted with their helper(s) via the app. Interview data indicated that HelpMeDoIt! prompted support from helpers that often occurred without the helpers using the app., Limitations: Early technical problems meant that some participants and helpers had difficulty accessing the app. Ethical constraints meant that we were unable to contact helpers directly for interview., Conclusions: The HelpMeDoIt! study demonstrated that a weight loss intervention delivered via an app and a website is feasible and acceptable. Progression criteria were met, supporting further evaluation of the intervention., Future Work: To further explore (1) the motivation and engagement of helpers, (2) the programme theory and (3) the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention., Trial Registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN85615983., Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research ; Vol. 8, No. 3. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information., (Copyright © Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2020. This work was produced by Simpson et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This issue may be freely reproduced for the purposes of private research and study and extracts (or indeed, the full report) may be included in professional journals provided that suitable acknowledgement is made and the reproduction is not associated with any form of advertising. Applications for commercial reproduction should be addressed to: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK.)