A Healthy School Start Plus for children and parents in disadvantaged areas – health promotion and obesity prevention

This three-year project is a further development of our Healthy School Start intervention and runs from 2017-2019, funded by the Swedish Research Council Forte and the Kamprad Family Foundation.

A high-quality evaluation of a programme to promote healthy dietary habits and physical activity and prevent obesity and chronic diseases in children starting school and their parents in disadvantaged areas with great health needs.

The programme is based on Social Cognitive Theory and includes four components:

  1. A health information brochure to parents
  2. Motivational Interviewing with the parents concerning their child
  3. Teacher-led classroom activities with the children with home assignments for the family
  4. A test of type 2 diabetes risk by parents with follow-up in primary health care, if needed

Outcomes:

  • Dietary habits
  • Physical activity, sedentary behaviour, body weight,height, and waist of children

Process evaluation

Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to identify barriers and facilitators of implementation, fidelity, dose, reach, and acceptance of the programme components.

Study design

A cluster-randomised controlled trial with 17 schools and 352 families in disadvantaged areas in the Mälardalen region (mid-Sweden).

Publications

Contact person for the project

Åsa Norman

Senior research specialist
K8 Department of Clinical Neuroscience
Linn Sjöberg
21-04-2022