Technical Assistance for Child and Adult Care Food Program in Family Child Care Home

Health Behavior Clinical Trial

Official title:

Compliance and Technical Assistance for Child and Adult Care Food Program in Family Child Care Homes

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03560050
• Other study ID #: 7551
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 1, 2017
• Est. completion date: October 30, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: March 2020
• Source: University of Oklahoma
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study evaluates the effect of a nutrition technical assistance training program for family child care home providers on the food they serve young children in their care and the food environment in their home. Half the providers will be assigned to the nutrition program and the other half will receive a comparison on environmental health.

Description:

Early care and education (ECE) providers play a vital role in ensuring that young children have access to nutritious foods. Over 25% of children in ECE (1.2 million children) attend Family Child Care Homes (FCCH). Improvements in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) may introduce new barriers for FCCH, which have limited meal preparation capacity. Limited research has examined foods served by FCCH providers, and no group randomized trials have been conducted using a Community-Based Participatory approach in FCCH and including an evaluation of intervention costs.

Goals: 1. Determine compliance of menus and meals provided in FCCH with CACFP guidelines. 2. Determine the effectiveness of a pilot community-based Nutrition Technical Assistance intervention to enhance meeting CACFP best-practices. 3. Determine the effectiveness of a statewide community-based Nutrition Technical Assistance Intervention to enhance meeting CACFP best-practices. 4. Expand university student opportunities for participation in health research.

Methods: Conduct a cross-sectional assessment of a random sample of FCCH providers' (n=52) menus and meals served. Foods will be evaluated against the CACFP requirements and best-practices. After the cross-sectional examination, providers in the pilot will be randomly assigned to a Nutrition Technical Assistance (n=26) or attention comparison intervention (n=26). Following the pilot, trained Extension Educators will implement both interventions (n=27 intervention, n=27 comparison) in six selected counties, reaching underserved rural and low-income populations. The intervention is based on theoretical foundations and formative interviews, and will consist of two 60-90-minute visits to the FCCH and one group class lasting approximately 3 hours.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 49
• Est. completion date: October 30, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: March 30, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 70 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Family child care home providers within 60 minutes of Oklahoma City who participate in the Child and Adults Care Food Program

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Health Behavior
• Malnutrition
• Nutrition Poor

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Nutrition assistance
Participating family child care home providers in and around the Oklahoma City (OKC) area will be randomized to either the Nutrition (n=26), or an environmental health comparison group (n=26). Briefly, the Nutrition Technical Assistance Intervention and comparison group will consist of three encounters with the intervention team: two home-based, 90-minute visits scheduled at the convenience of the family child care home provider and a 3-hour group class session that will be conducted on a weekend. Total contact time with intervention staff will be 6 hours. All participants will receive a toolkit. Providers will complete either intervention over a period of three months.
• Children's environmental health
Participating family child care home providers in and around the OKC area will be randomized to either the Nutrition (n=26), or an environmental health intervention (n=26) that will receive an Integrated Pest Management and Green Cleaning intervention with the same format and visit frequency. Briefly, the Intervention will consist of three encounters with the intervention team: two home-based, 90-minute visits scheduled at the convenience of the family child care home provider and a 3-hour group class session that will be conducted on a weekend. Total contact time with intervention staff will be 6 hours. All participants will receive a toolkit. Providers will complete either intervention over a period of three months.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Oklahoma

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in self-reported nutrition practices	Providers report the frequency of fruit and vegetables, milk, and salty snacks served	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months
Secondary	Change in Provider knowledge and self efficacy	providers will self report nutrition and environmental health knowledge and self efficacy	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months
Secondary	Change in Environmental health observation	observation of household cleaners and chemicals and signs of pests	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months
Secondary	Change in nutrition environment using the Environment and Policy Assessment Observation	observation of food environment during lunch on 2 unannounced days	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months
Secondary	Change in compliance of menu and meal with Child and Adult Care Food Program	menus and meals are compared to the requirements and best practices of the CACFP	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months
Secondary	Change in children's dietary intake	observation of children's dietary intake on 2 unannounced days	baseline, post 3-months, post 12-months