CO-HEALTHY

Rationale: The need for early interventions to prevent overweight and obesity in deprived areas is widely recognised. Urban preschools with play-based education provide an opportunity to reach many young children (2 to 4 years old) and their parents with disadvantaged backgrounds. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers at preschools are potential key figures to promote healthy behaviours and engage parents in lifestyle-related topics. A partnership between ECEC teachers and parents regarding eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours may support parents and stimulate their children’s development. However, it is not an easy task to establish such a collaboration in practice.
Objective: To examine the effects of a preschool-based intervention on the ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in children.
Study design: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial.
Study population: ECEC teachers, parents and their children (2 to 4 years old) at urban preschools in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, that provide play-based education.
Intervention: The intervention consists of a toolkit and associated training for ECEC teachers. The Toolkit CO-HEALTHY includes 10 parent-child activities concerning healthy eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in young children. At intervention preschools, a local team of ECEC teachers will select 6 parent-child activities (most suitable for their group of parents/children) and will carry out the activities during regular contact moments. Parents will receive corresponding intervention materials and will be encouraged to perform parent-child activities at home. ECEC teachers at control preschools will not receive the toolkit and training.
Main study parameters/endpoints: The ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in young children.

It is hypothesised that the preschool-based intervention will improve the ECEC teacher-parent partnership regarding eating, physical (in)activity and sleeping behaviours in children. The intervention should reach parents and their children with different socio-economic and socio-cultural backgrounds.

Baseline
6 months

CO-HEALTHY concerns research on 3 populations: ECEC teachers, parents and children. Preschools will be randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. After baseline measurements, at least 1 ECEC teacher at intervention preschools will follow a 3-hour training session. The training focusses on improving the teachers’ knowledge and skills to collaborate with parents regarding lifestyle behaviours of their children. The first part of the training will include theory and a practical assignment about collaborating with parents. In the second part of the training, a toolkit with 10 parent-child activities concerning eating, physical(in)activity and sleeping behaviours in young children will be presented. The parent-child activities aim to engage parents from different socio-economic and socio-cultural backgrounds. ECEC teachers will be instructed to carry out 6 of the 10 parent-child activities in a period of 3 months. A reader with information of the training will be provided. After the training session, the ECEC teachers will communicate the content of the training to their local team of colleague ECEC teachers. As a team, the ECEC teachers will decide which parent-child activities they will provide at their preschool. The parent-child activities, of 15-30 minutes each, will be carried out at regular contact moments during preschool hours (at the walk-in play time/when parents bring their child). Parents will receive corresponding intervention materials per activity and will be encouraged also to perform parent-child activities at home. ECEC teachers at control preschools will not receive the training and toolkit.