Abstract:
Introduction: In Germany, 14% of girls and 8% of boys from 3-6 years are overweight or obese. These rates have become worse due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Being overweight in early childhood often continues into adolescence and adulthood, and can result in a physical and psychological health conditions. Obesity prevention efforts of German healthcare providers through lifestyle changes have generally not been satisfactory.
Methods: Therefore, an interdisciplinary network of researchers and practitioners has developed a structured, early, cross-sector, outreach, and family-centered intervention that aims for the prevention of overweight. The intervention will be tested within a 12-month multi-arm randomised controlled design to identify the impact of the intervention compared to the current usual care. Children with overweight or obesity (N= 812) aged 3-6 years and their families will be included in the study. Families allocated into the intervention group will receive home-based coaching sessions, supported by an e-health platform. The control group will receive a one-time healthy lifestyle counseling from a pediatrician.
Employing a mixed-methods approach, quantitative and qualitative implementation data will be collected. Parents, coaches, and service providers will be invited for a semi-structured interview two and ten months after the baseline to identify barriers and facilitators of the intervention as well as the feasibility of implementation strategies. In addition, quantitative indicators will be collected throughout the study and used to score implementation quality in four dimensions (dosage, fidelity, quality of delivery, and participants’ responsiveness), matched with the results of the summative evaluation data.
Results/conclusion: The expected findings from this formative evaluation will help to optimise implementation quality in the future and inform health practitioners by reducing the evidence practice/policy gap in that field, as well as highlighting implementation challenges. The factors which contributed to implementation quality, as well as the relation between implementation quality and programme outcomes, will be discovered. This study will help to improve our understanding of key determinants of intervention implementation and its association with intervention effectiveness. If proven effective, this programme might be applied more broadly within the country resulting in effective change in the health status of children.
