Purpose: This study was designed to assess the feasibility of the ‘Healthy Youngsters, Healthy Dads’ intervention. The program was designed to educate fathers and their young children about strategies to improve their physical activity (PA), dietary and screen-time behaviours.

 Methods: Twenty-four father/pre-school child (3-5 years) dyads were recruited from Newcastle, Australia. The 9-week intervention included a ‘dads-only’ information session (evidence-based parenting strategies to improve children's PA, eating habits, social-emotional well-being and fundamental movement skills (FMS)) and eight, weekly dads-and-kids education and practical sessions (covering healthy eating, fitness, FMS, screens, rough-and-tumble play). Primary outcomes (participant attendance and fathers’ perceived acceptability; benchmarks set at 80% and ≥4 out of 5, respectively) and secondary outcomes (recruitment capability, participant retention, completion of home-based activities,  fathers’ and children’s PA levels, father-child co-PA, BMI, body composition, screen time, children’s FMS competency and executive functioning) were assessed at baseline and/or post-intervention.

Results: On average, baseline PA levels of fathers and children were below recommended levels, 67% of fathers were overweight/obese and 20% of children were overweight/obese. All primary outcomes surpassed set benchmarks. Attendance rates were 100% and 86% for the father-only and father-youngsters workshops, respectively, and fathers' mean overall program satisfaction was 4.8 out of 5. Two-thirds of interested fathers were eligible to participate. Retention was excellent with 92% of participants completing follow-up assessments. Completion of home-based activities ranged from 65% to 91%. Changes in other secondary outcomes were generally in a favourable direction between baseline and 10-week follow-up. The practicalities of having preschool aged children wearing pedometers appropriately, having assessments of FMS and executive functioning and being measured anthropometrically were all demonstrated to be achievable.

Conclusion: This study showed high attendance rates and program satisfaction, demonstrating the feasibility of this novel, world-first intergenerational program. Preliminary evidence emerged of program efficacy to improve various aspects of PA levels, body-composition and executive functioning among fathers and their preschool aged children. A larger-scale efficacy trial is warranted.

Background: Healthy Dads Healthy Kids (HDHK) was the first obesity prevention intervention for fathers and had positive outcomes in Australia. The aim was to assess the feasibility of implementing a culturally adapted version of HDHK to Hispanic families in southwestern US.

Methods: A randomized waitlist controlled trial with a process evaluation was conducted to assess the feasibility of implementing the program and study. Fathers, their partner (mother) and 1-3 children were enrolled. A priori feasibility criteria were: a) Recruit 40 Hispanic fathers and their families in ≤ 4 m (months); b) Retain 80% of participants for pre- and post-assessments (4 m later); c) Maintain ≥70% attendance to program sessions; d) obtain 80% ‘excellent’-‘good’ satisfaction from participants who attended the program; and e) collect anthropometric and behavioral data on ≥75% of participants at baseline and follow up.

Results: In <4 months we recruited and screened in-person 42 Hispanic families, and enrolled 36 families who qualified. 64% of fathers had not completed high school, 83% spoke only Spanish at home, and 89% were born outside of the US. Baseline data were collected on 36 fathers, 64 children and 35 mothers, with complete data on 86% (5 families were missing some accelerometer data). 19 families were randomized to the intervention and 17 to the control group. Attendance to the 10 week intervention was 56% for the whole intervention group, and 72% for those that started the program and did not drop out (N=14). 100% of fathers and mothers rated HDHK excellent or good (excellent by 92% of fathers). Almost all the fathers (mean score of 4.6, SD 0.6) and mothers (4.78, SD 0.5) stated they would recommend the program to their friends (strongly agree [5] – strongly disagree [1]). 27 (75%) participated in some aspect of the post-assessment, with 26 (72.2%) having most data collected.

Conclusion: The culturally adapted HDHK reached a high-risk, low-income sample of Hispanic families. The study met some, but not all feasibility criteria. With adjustment to recruitment and retention the program should be evaluated in an efficacy trial

Objective: Targeting fathers in lifestyle interventions is a novel approach to improve health behaviours in children, thereby preventing childhood obesity. The Run Daddy Run (RDR) intervention was therefore developed and implemented, targeting Belgian fathers and their primary school-aged children to improve their lifestyle behaviours (i.e. (co-)physical activity (PA) and screen time behaviour) and other health-related outcomes. The aim of the present study is to describe the development and implementation of the RDR intervention, and to investigate its effects on fathers’ and children’s (co)-PA and screen time behaviours.

Methods: A total of ±100 fathers/primary school-aged child (6-8 years) dyads residing in Flanders (Belgium) were randomly assigned to either the control group (n=50) or the RDR intervention group (n=50). The intervention consisted of 6 two-weekly (inter)active sessions for fathers and their children. The sessions included an informative component and an active component, and were guided by two trained facilitators. Furthermore, fathers and children of the intervention group had access to an online (personal) profile on which they could log PA goals and activities, access tips /ideas for physical activities and exercises. Before and after the intervention, fathers completed an online questionnaire questioning their (co-)PA, (co-)screen time, weight status and other health-related outcomes. Objective measures of PA were obtained from fathers and children using wrist-worn accelerometers (Axivity AX3). Longitudinal analyses were conducted to measure the effects of the intervention.  

Results: Currently, no results are available yet as the intervention will take place between February and May 2020. The first results will be available by the end of May. We expect that in the intervention group there will be a larger increase from baseline to follow-up in (co-)PA and a larger decrease in (co-)screen time, compared to the control group.

Conclusions: The findings of this study will allow us to determine whether the RDR intervention is able to improve health behaviours in fathers and children (i.e. (co)-PA and -screen time), which might have important implications for future research and health policy.