title: Feasibility of standardized methods to specify behavioral pediatric obesity prevention interventions.
abstract: Standardized methods are needed to evaluate what occurs within the 'black box' of behavioral interventions to prevent pediatric obesity. The purpose of this research is to evaluate methods to specify the behavior change techniques used and the amount of time spent discussing target weight-related behaviors in an intervention for parents of children at risk for becoming overweight or obese. Independent coders were trained to identify behavior change techniques and time spent discussing weight-related behaviors in audio recordings and transcripts of intervention sessions from 100 randomly selected participants. The behavior change technique taxonomy (BCTTv1) was used to code techniques present in sessions. A newly-developed tool was used to code time spent discussing each target weight-related behavior (e.g., physical activity, screen time). Sessions from a subset of these participants (N = 20) were double coded to evaluate inter-rater reliability. After revisions to coding protocols, coders reliably coded behavior change techniques used and time spent discussing target weight-related behaviors in sessions from the subset of 20 participants. The most commonly discussed target weight-related behavior was physical activity followed by energy intake and fruit and vegetable intake. On average, 13.9 (SD = 2.8) unique behavior change techniques were present across sessions for a given participant. These results offer reliable methods for systematically identifying behavior change techniques used and time spent discussing weight-related behaviors in a pediatric obesity prevention intervention. This work paves the way for future research to identify which specific target behaviors and techniques are most associated with the prevention of unhealthy weight gain in children.
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Research, Allina Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Meghan.JaKa@Allina.com.
authors.forename: Meghan M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: JaKa
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Simone A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: French
authors.affiliation: Division of Biostatistics, Univeristy of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wolfson
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Research, Allina Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Jeffery
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Services Research, City University London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Fabianna
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lorencatto
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour Change, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Michie
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Shelby L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Langer
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Rona L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: HealthPartners Institute, Bloomington, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Sherwood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032763:Behavior Control / Q000379:methods*; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002149:Energy Intake; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Behavior change techniques; Health behavior; Pediatric obesity; Process evaluation; Weight-related behaviors