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. 2021 Sep 16;13(9):3227.
doi: 10.3390/nu13093227.

Parent Involvement in Diet or Physical Activity Interventions to Treat or Prevent Childhood Obesity: An Umbrella Review

Emily J Tomayko  1 , Alison Tovar  2 , Nurgul Fitzgerald  3 , Carol L Howe  4 , Melanie D Hingle  5 , Michael P Murphy  6 , Henna Muzaffar  7 , Scott B Going  5 , Laura Hubbs-Tait  8
Affiliations

Parent Involvement in Diet or Physical Activity Interventions to Treat or Prevent Childhood Obesity: An Umbrella Review

Emily J Tomayko et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Parents substantially influence children's diet and physical activity behaviors, which consequently impact childhood obesity risk. Given this influence of parents, the objective of this umbrella review was to synthesize evidence on effects of parent involvement in diet and physical activity treatment and prevention interventions on obesity risk among children aged 3-12 years old. Ovid/MEDLINE, Elsevier/Embase, Wiley/Cochrane Library, Clarivate/Web of Science, EBSCO/CINAHL, EBSCO/PsycInfo, and Epistemonikos.org were searched from their inception through January 2020. Abstract screening, full-text review, quality assessment, and data extraction were conducted independently by at least two authors. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of diet and physical activity interventions that described parent involvement, included a comparator/control, and measured child weight/weight status as a primary outcome among children aged 3-12 years old were included. Data were extracted at the level of the systematic review/meta-analysis, and findings were narratively synthesized. Of 4158 references identified, 14 systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses (eight treatment focused and six prevention focused) were included and ranged in quality from very low to very high. Our findings support the inclusion of a parent component in both treatment and prevention interventions to improve child weight/weight status outcomes. Of note, all prevention-focused reviews included a school-based component. Evidence to define optimal parent involvement type and duration and to define the best methods of involving parents across multiple environments (e.g., home, preschool, school) was inadequate and warrants further research. PROSPERO registration: CRD42018095360.

Keywords: childhood obesity; interventions; nutrition; parents; physical activity; prevention; treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the process of literature search and extraction of studies meeting the inclusion criteria.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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