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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Elizabeth EvansORCiD, Professor Ashley AdamsonORCiD, Dr Laura BasterfieldORCiD, Dr João GrecaORCiD, Letitia Sermin-ReedORCiD, Maddey PattersonORCiD, Dr Lorraine McSweeneyORCiD, Raenhha Dhami, Louisa Jane Ells, Tomos RobinsonORCiD, Dr Martin Tovee, Professor Vera Araujo-SoaresORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 The Author(s). British Journal of Health Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society. OBJECTIVES: Parental underdetection of child underweight and overweight/obesity may negatively affect children's longer-term health. We examined psychological/behavioural mechanisms of a very low-intensity intervention to improve acknowledgement and understanding of child weight after feedback from a school-based weight monitoring programme. DESIGN: This sub-study was nested within a larger 3-arm cluster-RCT (1:1:1; N = 57,300). Parents in all groups received written postal feedback on their child's weight classification. Intervention participants received an enhanced feedback letter with computer-generated photorealistic images depicting children of different weight classifications, and access to a website about supporting healthy weight, once (intervention one) or twice (intervention two; repeated 6 months after first 'dose'). METHODS: A quantitative process and outcome evaluation using baseline and 12-month BMI z-scores of an opt-in sub-sample of 502 children aged 4-5 and 10-11. Children completed dietary reports, used accelerometers (MVPA), and self-reported self-esteem; 10-11-year-olds also self-reported quality of life and dietary restraint. Parents reported perceptions of child's weight classification, and their intentions, self-efficacy, action planning and coping planning for child physical activity, dietary intake; parents of 4-5-year-olds reported their child's quality of life. RESULTS: Neither intervention differentially improved parental acknowledgement or understanding of weight classification at follow-up, although parents in all groups reported better acknowledgement after receiving feedback. The interventions did not affect behavioural/psychological determinants, weight outcomes, children's self-esteem, dietary restraint or quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: The interventions neither improved parental acknowledgement of child weight, child BMI z-scores and their psychological/behavioural determinants, nor worsened psycho-social sequelae.
Author(s): Evans EH, Jones CM, Adamson A, Jones AR, Basterfield L, Greca JPA, Sermin-Reed L, Patterson M, McSweeney L, Dhami R, Ells L, Gahagan A, Robinson T, Shahrokhabadi MS, Teare D, Tovee MJ, Araujo Soares V
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: British Journal of Health Psychology
Year: 2025
Volume: 30
Issue: 1
Online publication date: 13/02/2025
Acceptance date: 20/01/2025
Date deposited: 10/03/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2044-8287
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12784
DOI: 10.1111/bjhp.12784
Data Access Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy and ethical restrictions. Instead, we provide all analysis code with a synthetic dataset that closely resembles the original data to facilitate reproducibility through the Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/J7K3F).
PubMed id: 39945123
