Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup Intervention

One in four Australian children aged five years and are affected by overweight or obesity; and significant proportions of children under five are not meeting guidelines of diet, activity, screen time, and sleep. 

Goals  

To promote healthful lifestyle behaviours and prevent obesity in children and families attending community playgroups. The effectiveness of the intervention will be tested in a two-arm cluster Randomised Controlled Trial involving 60 community playgroups. 

Overview

• The program is designed to be a casual conversation between parents attending playgroup. Parents help each other to overcome common challenges such as fussy eating and children’s sleep.
• A parent facilitator, trained in the Healthy Conversations program, will visit each playgroup five times throughout the school term and start conversations designed to spark further conversation between parents.
• Study outcomes (fruit and vegetable intake, daily physical activity, screen time, sleep duration and BMI z-score) will be assessed at baseline, 10 weeks after the first assessment and six months later.
• We are seeking to determine whether this program is effective so that it can be delivered to more playgroups across Australia so more parents can benefit.