NCT03560050

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

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

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 49 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Oklahoma · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

• Nutrition Poor
• Health Behavior

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
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.
BEHAVIORAL	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.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-10-01
• Primary completion: 2019-03-30
• Completion: 2019-10-30
• First posted: 2018-06-18
• Last updated: 2020-03-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States