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Home visitation lowers obesity rate in low-income children
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Young children living in communities with a low socioeconomic status who participated in a home visiting program had significantly lowered rate of obesity, with children of Hispanic families less likely to be overweight or obese at 2 years when receiving the intervention, according to a recently published study in Pediatrics.
“We hope that this report will emphasize the importance of health promotion within the context of responsive caregiving in the first 2 years of children’s lives,” Monica Roosa Ordway, PhD, APRN, PPCNP-BC, assistant professor at Yale School of Nursing, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “With at least a dozen opportunities to meet face to face with parents during recommended well-child visits from the prenatal period to children’s second birthday, pediatric primary care providers are well poised to incorporate some of the theoretical approaches used in the [Minding the Baby (MTB)] intervention, but are constrained by time and the level of engagement often required by most vulnerable families.”
In a prospective longitudinal cohort study, Ordway and colleagues collected data from two phases of the MTB home visiting program, which was an interdisciplinary and a relationship-based randomized control trial. Phases included the randomized control trial pilot testing between 2002 and 2008 and an efficacy trial between 2008 and 2016. The MTB program included first-time, young mothers living in medically underserved communities, where most families live near the poverty level.
Data on 158 children (92, intervention cohort; 66, control) from birth to 2 years were measured for demographics, mental health and anthropometrics.
Children who received intervention were more likely to have a healthy BMI at 2 years, the researchers reported. There was a significantly higher rate of obesity in the control group compared with the intervention group in children aged 2 years (19.7% vs. 3.3%; P < .01).
The overall study sample was 68% Hispanic, with significantly more Hispanic mothers in the intervention cohort compared with the control cohort (P = .02). Children of Hispanic families were less likely to have overweight or obesity in the intervention cohort (OR = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13-0.78).
“On the basis of our findings, we suggest that home visiting programs that focus on the whole child and on the early mother-child relationship using a socioecological approach may be in the best position to build the foundation for healthy development,” the researchers concluded. “Much more empirical evidence is required to confirm this hypothesis, but with our results, we suggest that this approach may be highly beneficial in lowering rates of obesity in at-risk populations.”
“Given the high and disproportionate national prevalence of Hispanic young children with overweight and obesity and the increased costs of obesity-related mortalities, these findings have important clinical, research and policy implications,” the researchers added. – Bruce Thiel
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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