NCT06940817

Cooking HEalthy and Facilitating Early Childhood Development: CHEF-ED Study

Re-establishing Inter-generational Cooking Education and Improving Diet Quality Through an Integrated Parenting and Healthy Cooking Program for Low-income Families With Young Children

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 300 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Baylor College of Medicine · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 64 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to test a new online program we developed for parents and their preschool children, called CHEF-ED. CHEF-ED focuses on healthy cooking, parental feeding practices, and involving children in home food preparation.

Detailed description

All study activities take place online over a 3-month period, and participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups: the CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group, the Food Delivery Only group, or the control group. Participants will not know to which group they are assigned until after they complete the time point 1 surveys. The assignment will be determined randomly using a computer program (equivalent to flipping a coin). To test how well the program works, regardless of group assignment, participants are asked to complete surveys at two different time points: Time point 1 = pre-program, shortly after enrollment, and Time point 2 = post-program, about 8-10 weeks later. The surveys take about 2 hours to complete online at each time point and will include questions about the participant's and their child's dietary intake, their cooking frequency/quality, food parenting practices, and program content retention. Surveys will also include questions about family's demographics (such as participant's and their child's date of birth, ethnicity, race, sex, etc.), and household food access. The CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group receives a one-time home food delivery of healthy cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils, such as cooking oil, spices, whole wheat pasta, low sodium soy sauce, bowls, and recipe books. Participants in this group also receive links to weekly CHEF-ED online lessons via text /email message for 7 weeks. Each weekly lesson will include a short video, infographics, and recipes. The Food Delivery Only group receives a one-time home food delivery of healthy cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils, but no other program materials. The control group receives no program materials or food delivery. About 8-10 weeks after completing the time point 1 surveys, participants will receive links to complete the time point 2 surveys. After completing the post-program surveys, participants who were in the Food Delivery Only or control group will receive additional program materials that were not previously provided due to their group assignment. This means that the Food Delivery Only group, after completing the time point 2 surveys, will receive links to all of the CHEF-ED program materials (videos, infographics, recipes) and, the control group, after completing the time point 2 surveys, will receive the one-time healthy ingredients and kitchen utensils delivery and links to all of the CHEF-ED program materials. Additionally, participants in the CHEF-ED + Food Delivery group, after the post-program surveys, may be invited to take part in an interview to share their experience with the program. This interview will be conducted over the phone or a video conference platform. The information participants share during the interview, such as suggestions and insights on materials accessibility, will help us improve the program.

Conditions

• Teaching Healthy Cooking Skills to Parents and Their Preschool Children

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	CHEF-ED + Food Delivery	CHEF-ED is a 7-week, digital, video-based parental intervention that teaches healthy cooking practices and an optimal way to involve children in home cooking. Each week features a video, infographics, and recipe content. The content is designed to be integrated into the home food environment without major changes to shopping habits. However, some basic culinary ingredients that are featured may not already be part of participating family pantry stocks. To support participants in effectively learning the healthy cooking strategies, participating families are provided a one-time home food delivery of non-perishable basic culinary ingredients and kitchen utensils, such as cooking oil, spices, whole wheat pasta, low sodium soy sauce, bowls.
BEHAVIORAL	Food Delivery Only	The Food Delivery Only intervention involves participants receiving a one-time home food delivery of non-perishable basic culinary ingredients and kitchen utensils, such as cooking oil, spices, whole wheat pasta, low sodium soy sauce, bowls.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-06-19
• Primary completion: 2027-08-31
• Completion: 2027-08-31
• First posted: 2025-04-23
• Last updated: 2025-07-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States