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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2017 Feb;44(1):141-152.
doi: 10.1177/1090198116644703. Epub 2016 Jul 9.

Let's Move Together

Hendrik Dirk de Heer  1   2 , Kayla de la Haye  3 , Kaley Skapinsky  2 , Andrea F Goergen  2 , Anna V Wilkinson  4 , Laura M Koehly  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Let's Move Together

Hendrik Dirk de Heer et al. Health Educ Behav. 2017 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Due to shared health behaviors and disease risk, families may be more effective targets for health promotion. This study assessed whether providing family health history (FHH)-based risk information for heart disease and diabetes affected encouragement to engage in physical activity (PA) and healthy weight (HW) maintenance and co-engagement in physical activity among 320 Mexican-origin parents and their 1,081 children.

Method: At baseline and 10 months, parents indicated who they encouraged and who encouraged them to engage in PA/HW, and with whom they co-engaged in PA. Households were randomized to receive FHH-based assessments either by one or all adult household members. Primary analyses consisted of regression analyses using generalized estimating equations.

Results: At baseline, parents reported encouraging their child for both PA and HW in 37.6% of parent-child dyads and reported receiving children's encouragement for both in 12.1% of dyads. These increased to 56.8% and 17.5% at 10 months ( p < .001). Co-engagement in PA increased from 11.4% to 15.7% ( p < .001), with younger children (30.4%) and mother-daughter dyads (26.8%) most likely to co-engage at 10 months. Providing FHH-based risk information to all adult household members (vs. one) was associated with increased parent-to-child encouragement of PA/HW ( p = .011) at 10 months but not child-to-parent encouragement. New encouragement from parent-to-child ( p = .048) and from child-to-parent ( p = .003) predicted new 10-month PA co-engagement.

Discussion: Providing FHH information on a household level can promote parental encouragement for PA/HW, which can promote greater parent-child co-engagement in PA. In this high-risk population with a cultural emphasis on family ties, using FHH-based risk information for all adult household members may be a promising avenue to promote PA.

Keywords: Latino; cardiovascular disease; community health promotion; diabetes; diffusion of innovations; family health; network analysis; physical activity/exercise; race/ethnicity; social influence.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graphical representation of study hypotheses.
Figure 2
Figure 2
An example of family health history risk feedback.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A family health history pedigree.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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