Skill-based Cooking Intervention to Reduce Eating Out

Phase I. Conduct 2-4 focus groups with 6-10 caretaker, who report eating foods prepared away from home ≥3 times per week, per group to gain insight into current eating behaviors of foods prepared away from home, current perceptions about a home prepared evening meal, and barriers to preparing evening meals at home. Information gathered during Phase I will be used to inform intervention development in Phase II.

Phase II. Develop, refine, and manualize a skill-based cooking intervention for overweight/obese caretakers of a child aged 3-10 years. The aim of Phase II is to test the feasibility of a skill-based cooking intervention to reduce the consumption of foods prepared away from home for the evening meal (e.g., pre-prepared frozen foods, restaurant foods, fast food, take-out), energy intake from evening meals, and promote a healthy weight in parents and children. Information collected during Phase I will inform the development of the skill-based cooking intervention. Once developed, the intervention will be refined with 6 primary caretakers of a child, who meet criteria for being overweight/obese during a testing phase. Conducting the intervention with at least six families will provide the opportunity for further refinement of intervention procedures. The results will be important to demonstrate feasibility for a future pilot randomized controlled trial that will test the impact of a skill-based cooking intervention compared to a standard cooking demonstration where recipes are simply provided to families.

Inclusion criteria

(Phase I):

• be ≥18 years of age
• have a child between the ages of 3 and 10 years-old
• report being the primary caretaker and have the primary feeding responsibility of the child for dinner/supper
• able to read, speak, and understand English
• have transportation to the Medical Center
• report their family including the child eats pre-prepared frozen food, restaurant food, fast food, or take-out for dinner ≥3 times per week
• has a working telephone number
• is able to attend the scheduled date and time of a focus group.

Inclusion criteria

(Phase II):

• caretaker is ≥18 years of age
• caretaker is overweight or obese (BMI≥25)
• has a child between the ages of 3 and 10 years-old
• report being the primary caretaker and have the primary feeding responsibility of the child for dinner/supper
• caretaker is able to read, speak, and understand English
• has transportation to the medical center and the instructional kitchen
• does not plan to move out of the area before June 2015
• reports their family including the child eats convenience food, restaurant food, fast food, or take-out for dinner ≥3 times per week
• reports access to a kitchen
• able to attend the scheduled date and time of the sessions.

Exclusion criteria

(Phase II):

• the caretaker or child is currently participating in a weight loss program and/or taking weight loss medication
• have a medical condition known to promote growth (e.g., Prader-Willi syndrome, Cushing's syndrome) or had gastric bypass surgery.