Healthy Habits, Happy Homes: An Intervention to Improve Household Routines for Obesity Prevention

"The 6-month intervention arm consists of 3 components:~1. In-home coaching visits with a health educator trained in motivational interviewing to encourage behavior change. In addition to 4 monthly in-home coaching visits, participants receive 4 monthly coaching phone calls to supplement the in-person visits.~2. Use of mobile technology to deliver health information by text message - participants receive messages twice weekly for 16 weeks and then weekly for 8 weeks of the program. Those without a phone capable of receiving text messages receive postcards by mail.~3. Printed materials, including educational handouts, newsletters, and activities highlighting target behaviors, sent monthly for 4 months."

"We designed materials for our control group focusing on Developmental milestones during early childhood to provide information that participants would find relevant and helpful for parenting, but that would also not influence intervention behaviors, such as TV viewing or household routines related to sleeping, eating, or television viewing.~Participants received 4 monthly mailing packages, each focusing thematically on one of four milestone domains: motor, language, cognitive and social/emotional. Educational materials were adapted from the Center for Disease Control's Positive Parenting Tips for Healthy Child Development, and the mailing included child-appropriate incentives to reinforce the concepts presented in the educational materials."