NCT07160530

Healthy Children, Healthy Communities: Effectiveness of a Multilevel Rural Community Engagement Model for Improving Children's Dietary Intake in Family Child Care Homes

Recruiting now NA Last updated 8 September 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing EAT Family Style in Childhood Obesity Pevention in 360 participants. Currently enrolling.

Timeline

7 October 2025

Primary endpoint
20 December 2028

31 May 2029

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of Nebraska Lincoln
Phase	NA
Status	Recruiting now
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	double
Primary purpose	prevention
Enrollment	360
Start date	7 October 2025
Primary completion	20 December 2028
Estimated completion	31 May 2029
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• EAT Family Style
• Better Kid Care

Conditions studied

• Childhood Obesity Pevention — all drugs for Childhood Obesity Pevention →
• Diet Quality — all drugs for Diet Quality →
• Feeding Behaviors — all drugs for Feeding Behaviors →
• Health Behavior Change — all drugs for Health Behavior Change →

Sponsor

University of Nebraska Lincoln

Who can join

3 and older, any sex, with Childhood Obesity Pevention or Diet Quality. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

The purpose of this study is to find out whether a program called "Healthy Children, Healthy Communities" can help young children in rural areas eat healthier and improve their health. The study focuses on children ages 3 to 5 who attend family childcare homes in rural communities.

The main goal is to see if the program can:

Help children eat healthier foods, like more fruits and vegetables.

Support childcare providers in using positive mealtime practices that encourage healthy eating.

The study will involve about 120 licensed family childcare providers in rural areas who participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), along with about 240 children they care for.

Childcare providers will be randomly placed into one of two groups:

EAT Family Style Group (Intervention Group):

Complete 7 online training modules over 16 weeks about healthy mealtime practices.

Join 7 individual coaching sessions on Zoom.

Record short videos of their mealtimes to get personalized feedback from a coach.

Work with a coach to set goals and make plans to improve mealtimes.

Receive printed materials and conversation cards to use during meals.

Some providers may join Zoom interviews to share their experiences.

Better Kid Care Group (Comparison Group):

Complete 10 online modules about general childcare topics like child development, oral health, play, and managing a childcare home.

For both groups, the research team will:

Ask providers to fill out online surveys about how mealtimes work in their childcare homes.

Visit the childcare homes to observe and record children's mealtimes on two days at each data collection point.

Measure the height and weight of participating children.

Use a painless skin scanner (Veggie Meter) to check how many fruits and vegetables children have been eating.

Ask providers to complete surveys about the children's eating habits.

The study focuses on rural, low-income communities, where children are at higher risk of having poor diets and obesity compared to children in urban areas. Information will be collected at the start of the study, after 16 weeks, and again after 24 weeks to see if there are lasting changes.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.