Family-Based Telehealth Initiative to Improve Nutrition and Physical Activity for Children With Obesity and Its Utility During COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Evaluation

Guidelines recommend primary care providers refer children with obesity to behavioral interventions, but given limited program availability, access, and parental engagement, referrals remain rare. We developed telehealth coaching interventions for families whose children received care at a health system in Pennsylvania, United States in 2019-2020. Intervention referrals were facilitated by the pediatrician and/or project team for 6–12-year-old children with obesity following well-child visits. Participants chose one of three 26-week interventions focused on healthy eating, physical activity, or a hybrid clinical/nutrition intervention. Interventions engaged parents as change agents, enhancing self-efficacy to model and reinforce behavior and providing resources to help create a healthy home environment. We enrolled 77 of 183 eligible parent/child dyads. We used mixed methods to evaluate the interventions. Repeated measures models among participants showed significant reductions in obesogenic nutrition behaviors post-intervention and at 1-year follow-up, including a reduction in sugar-sweetened beverage intake of 2.14 servings/week (95% confidence interval: −3.45, −0.82). There were also improvements in obesoprotective nutrition behaviors (e.g., frequency of family meals, parental self-efficacy related to meal management). One year post-baseline, we observed no significant differences in changes in body mass index (BMI) z-scores comparing child participants with matched controls. Given potential impacts of COVID-19 community restrictions on study outcomes, we conducted qualitative interviews with 13 participants during restrictions, which exemplified how disrupted routines constrained children’s healthy behaviors but that intervention participation prepared parents by providing cooking and physical activities at home. Findings support the potential of a telehealth-delivered nutrition intervention to support adoption of healthy weight behaviors.