Healthy Mothers-Healthy Children Nutrition

Hispanic women and children who become overweight or obese are at risk for developing prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life. To date, there have been no interdisciplinary interventions that have targeted Hispanic women and their 3-5 year old children to improve nutrition and physical activity behaviors to manage adiposity and weight in mothers and prevent excessive adiposity and weight gain trajectory in their children. Using a randomized two-group, repeated measures experimental design, the goal of the proposed study is to investigate the efficacy of a 12-week nutrition and exercise education, physical activity, coping skills training, and home-based physical activity intervention in Hispanic women and their 3-5 year old children and 6 months of continued monthly contact to help overweight and obese Hispanic mothers improve adiposity, weight, health behaviors (nutrition and physical activity), and self-efficacy and their 3-5 year old children improve their adiposity and weight gain trajectory and health behaviors (nutrition and physical activity). The investigators will partner with two federally qualified health departments in Durham and Chatham, North Carolina to enroll Hispanic women and their 3-5 year old children and the investigators will partner with community centers to deliver the intervention. A total of 294 Hispanic women with a BMI >25 kg/m² and 294 Hispanic 3-5 year old children with a BMI percentile > 25 will be enrolled over 4 years and randomized to the experimental or equal attention control group. Data will be collected at Time 1 (0 months [baseline]) to Time 2 (9 months [completion of the intervention]) and Time 1 to Time 3 (15 months [after 6 months with no contact from the study staff]). Data collected will include adiposity (primary outcomes: waist circumference, triceps and subscapular skinfolds) in mothers and children and weight (primary outcomes: body mass index [BMI] in mothers and BMI percentile in the children). Secondary outcomes will include health behaviors and self-efficacy in the mothers (Adult Health Behavior Questionnaire, Lifestyle Health Promoting Profile II, 3 day 24-Hour Food Recall, and 7 day Accelerometer, Eating Self-Efficacy Scale and Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale) and in the children (7 day Accelerometer and 3 day 24-Hour Food Recall). The investigators will also evaluate the cost of delivering the program for public health departments. Data analysis will use general linear mixed models to test the hypotheses. Decreasing overweight and obesity in Hispanic women and slowing adiposity and weight gain trajectory in young Hispanic children is urgently needed to decrease morbidity, mortality, and future health care costs. The knowledge to be gained from this study may provide a foundation for extending this intervention to other Hispanic mothers and children in other communities to assist mothers in managing their weight and preventing excessive adiposity and weight gain in their children. This approach is translatable, real-world, and could be replicated in other areas of the United States.

Inclusion criteria

for mothers will be:

• age 18 years or older
• self-identification as Hispanic
• limited English proficiency; little acculturation, as measured by the Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics with a score from 1.00 to 2.99
• ability to understand spoken Spanish
• a BMI >25kg/m^2
• residence with the child
• consent to join the study and consent for their child to join the study.

Inclusion criteria

for children will be:

• age 3-5 years
• ability to understand spoken Spanish
• a BMI > 25th percentile for age and gender

Exclusion criteria

for mothers will be:

• heart murmur
• congenital heart disease
• family history of sudden death
• difficulty exercising
• psychological problems