# A Hybrid Mobile Phone Family Intervention to Prevent Childhood Obesity

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2023 · $649,154

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Child obesity disproportionately impacts young Latino children. Obesity interventions focusing on 2- to 5-
year-olds are critical as excessive weight gain during this period increases the risk of adolescent and adult
overweight and has important implications for later health problems. Moreover, many obesogenic behaviors in
adulthood, like television viewing and consumption of sugary drinks, begin at this age. The most effective
childhood obesity interventions are those rooted in behavior and family systems theories. Both of these
theories provide approaches to support lifestyle changes with an understanding that family is the major
mediator of social influences on a child’s development. To date, however, most family-based interventions: (1)
focus on one parent, typically mothers; (2) miss the opportunity to leverage the Latino cultural value of familism
(i.e. family connectedness) to impact childhood obesity outcomes; and (3) include lengthy curricula requiring
weekly in-person sessions over a 2- to 6-month time period. The rationale for the proposed study is to address
these shortcomings by evaluating the effectiveness of a community-based intervention that is shorter and
involves multiple family caregivers. The intervention will include in-person and mobile phone components
focusing on Latino caregivers of young children, to support evidence-based and age appropriate dietary,
media-viewing, and physical activity practices among 2- to 5-year old children, in order to decrease ethnic
disparities in childhood obesity. The study will also explore the intervention’s potential to multiply the public
health benefit by reducing obesity risk for adult caregivers. A prospective randomized study design will be used
to evaluate the effectiveness of the family-based childhood obesity intervention on child BMI at 6- months
(primary outcome) and at 12 months (secondary outcome), compared to a usual WIC care group. The study
will randomize approximately 260 adult Latino caregivers of 2- to 5-year old children (2 caregivers per child)
and half will be assigned to the intervention, and the other half will serve as the control group. All families will
be recruited from four WIC Centers in Los Angeles County. Primary and secondary outcomes will include: (1)
changes in child BMI outcomes at 6- and 12 months; (2) changes in child dietary, media-viewing, and physical
activity practices; (3) whether familism attenuates or amplifies the intervention’s effect on differences in child
BMI change between intervention and WIC usual care group; and (4) changes in caregiver’s dietary, physical
activity, and weight. Pre- and post-intervention anthropometric and survey data will be collected at baseline, 1-,
6-, and 12-months post-baseline to estimate the intervention effect size on child BMI and weight-related
practices, and explore whether familial mechanisms moderate the intervention’s effect on child BMI.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10609440
- **Project number:** 5R01MD016135-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Alma D Guerrero
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $649,154
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-04-13 → 2026-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10609440

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10609440, A Hybrid Mobile Phone Family Intervention to Prevent Childhood Obesity (5R01MD016135-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10609440. Licensed CC0.

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