Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Canadian Family-Based Childhood Obesity Management Virtual Program Delivered During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Generation Health (GH) was a 10-week family-based lifestyle program designed to promote a healthy lifestyle for families with children who are off the healthy weight trajectory in British Columbia, Canada. GH used a blended delivery format which consisted of 10 weekly in-person sessions and self-guided lessons and activities on a web portal. The blended GH was adapted to be delivered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the effectiveness of the virtual GH compared with the blended GH remains unclear. OBJECTIVE 1) to compare the effectiveness of virtual GH delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic with the blended GH delivered prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in changing child physical activity, sedentary, dietary behaviours, screen time behaviours and parental support related behaviours for child physical activity and healthy eating; 2) to explore virtual GH program engagement and satisfaction. METHODS This study used a single-arm design. The blended GH (n=102) was delivered from October 2018 to February 2020, and the virtual GH (n=90) was delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2020 to March 2021. Families with children between the ages of 8-12 years old and a BMI ≥85th percentile for age and sex were recruited. Participants completed pre-and post-intervention questionnaires to assess the child’s physical activity, dietary, sedentary, screen time and parent support behaviours. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to evaluate the difference between the virtual and blended GH over time. RESULTS Both the virtual and blended GH improved child MVPA (F(1,380)=18.37, p<.00001, ηp2=.07) and reduced screen time (F(1,380)= 9.17, p=.003, ηp2=.06 ). However, participants in the virtual GH reported significantly greater vegetable intake than in blended GH at 10-week follow-up (F(1,380)=15.19, p<.001, ηp2 =.004).. Parents in both virtual and blended GH showed significant improvements in support behaviours for child physical activity (F(1,380)=5.55, p<.02, ηp2 =.002) and healthy eating (F(1,380)=3.91, p<.001, ηp2=.01), as well as self-regulation of parent support for child physical activity (F(1,380)=49.20, p<.0001, ηp2=.16) and healthy eating (F(1,380)=91.13, p<.0001, ηp2) =.28). Families in both the virtual and blended GH were satisfied with the program delivery. There were no significant differences in attendance for the weekly in-person (77%) or group video chat sessions (76%) for the blended and virtual GH, respectively (p>.05). However, webportal usage was significantly greater in the virtual GH (50 [55.82] minutes) compared with blended GH (17 [15.3] minutes) (p<.001). CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study suggested that virtual GH was as effective in improving child lifestyle behaviours and parental support-related behaviours as the blended program. Virtual GH has the potential to improve the flexibility and scalability of family-based childhood obesity management interventions.

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