Characterizing Behavior Change Interventions to Improve Pediatric Obesity Prevention Research

Abstract

Behavior change interventions to prevent pediatric obesity are critical. The efficacy of these interventions has been modest and reasons for the less-than-desired results are unclear. This dissertation includes three manuscripts aimed at characterizing and identifying effective components within the ‘black box’ of pediatric obesity prevention interventions. The first manuscript assesses the reliability of a standardized method for coding characteristics of an intervention delivered to parents of 5- to 10-year-old children at risk for becoming overweight or obese. The second manuscript evaluates if parents, when given choice in a pediatric obesity prevention intervention, spend time discussing the weight-related behaviors most relevant to their child’s obesity risk. The purpose of the third manuscript is to identify relationships between specific intervention characteristics and study outcomes (i.e., change in child weight-related behaviors and BMI percentile). By using reliable, standardized methods to identify effective intervention characteristics, this dissertation paves the way for future researchers to design more focused interventions, ultimately leading to successful prevention of pediatric obesity.