Knowledge Bank

Given the ongoing childhood obesity public health crisis and potential protective effect of family meals, there is need for additional family meals research, specifically experimental studies with expanded health outcomes that focus on the at-risk populations in highest need of intervention. Future research, specifically intervention work, would also benefit from an expansion of the target age range to include younger children, who are laying the foundation of their eating patterns and capable of participating in family meal preparations. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of participation in an evidence-based, field-tested 10-week family meals intervention (Simple Suppers, SS), aimed at eliciting positive changes in child dietary intake and weight status. We hypothesized that diet quality, body mass index (BMI) z-scores, waist circumference (WC) z-scores, blood pressure (BP) z-scores and child food preparation skills/frequency would improve more from baseline to post-intervention among children participating in the intervention than in the controls.