Recruitment strategies in a prospective longitudinal family study on parents with obesity and their toddlers.

BACKGROUND: Recruitment of participants with obesity is a real challenge. To reduce time and costs in similar projects, we investigated various recruiting strategies used in a longitudinal family study with respect to their enrolment yield and cost effectiveness. Results may help other research groups to optimize their recruitment strategies. METHODS: We applied different recruitment strategies to acquire families with children aged 6 to 47 months and at least one parent with obesity (risk group) or two parents of normal weight (control group) for a longitudinal non-interventional study. Based on four main strategies-via media, kindergartens, health professionals and focusing on the community-we examined 15 different subcategories of strategies. Based on enrolment yield and relative costs (e.g., material expenses, staff time) we analyzed the effectiveness of each recruitment strategy. RESULTS: Following different recruitment approaches, 685 families contacted us; 26% (n = 178) of these met the inclusion criteria. Of the four main strategies, the community-focused strategy was the most successful one (accounting for 36.5% of the sample) followed by contacts with kindergartens (accounting for 28.1% of the sample). Of the subcategories, two strategies were outstanding: Posters (community-focused strategies), and recruitment via kindergartens using phone contacts rather than emailing. Only a small number of participants were recruited via announcements in newspapers (lower cost strategy), advertisements on public transport or face-to-face recruitment at various places (higher cost strategies). CONCLUSIONS: Results revealed that only a combination of different active and passive methods and approaches led to a sufficient sample size. In this study, recruitment via posters and contacting kindergartens on the phone produced the highest numbers of participants (high enrolment yield) at moderate costs.

Parent-child interaction during feeding or joint eating in parents of different weights.

The current study investigates parent-child interaction during feeding or during joint eating, and aimed to explore differences in feeding interactions between mothers and fathers, as well as between overweight, obese and not overweight parents. 148 mothers and 148 fathers with children aged between 7 and 47months were observed during feeding of or joint eating with their child in the laboratory. The videotaped mother-child and father-child dyads were coded using the Chatoor Feeding Scale. This scale consists of 5 subscales: Dyadic Reciprocity, Dyadic Conflict, Talk and Distraction during Feeding, Struggle for Control, and Non-Contingency. Compared to mothers, fathers showed higher readings on the Talk and Distraction scale; in all other subscales no differences were found. The comparison between overweight, obese and not overweight mother-child dyads revealed no significant differences. Differences in father-child dyads between overweight, obese and not overweight fathers were identified in the subscale Struggle for Control: overweight fathers were marked by a higher amount of Struggle for Control than obese and not overweight fathers. Taken together, differences found in the present observational study are small to moderate, and thus the current results support extant literature demonstrating that there are no differences in feeding behaviour between mothers and fathers or between obese and non-obese parents.

Coordination strategies of chimpanzees and human children in a Stag Hunt game.

Much of human cooperation takes place in mutualistic contexts in which the main challenge for individuals is how to coordinate decisions. In the current studies, we compared the abilities of chimpanzees and young children to coordinate with a partner in two versions of a Stag Hunt game. When risks were low (the hare was of low value) and information was cheap (the partner's behaviour was readily observable), partners of both species were able to successfully coordinate on the higher value stag more than 90% of the time. By contrast, when the risks were raised and observing the partner was more difficult, the chimpanzees became less successful, whereas the children compensated, and so remained highly successful, by communicating more often and more specifically. This pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that humans evolved unique skills of coordination and communication in the context of especially risky coordination problems.

Obese parents--obese children? Psychological-psychiatric risk factors of parental behavior and experience for the development of obesity in children aged 0-3: study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The incidences of childhood overweight and obesity have increased substantially and with them the prevalence of associated somatic and psychiatric health problems. Therefore, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors for early childhood overweight in order to develop effective prevention or intervention programs. Besides biological factors, familial interactions and parental behavioral patterns may influence children's weight development. Longitudinal investigation of children at overweight risk could help to detect significant risk and protective factors. We aim to describe infants' weight development over time and identify risk and protective factors for the incidence of childhood obesity. Based on our findings we will draw up a risk model that will lay the foundation for an intervention/prevention program. METHODS/DESIGN: We present the protocol of a prospective longitudinal study in which we investigate families with children aged from 6 months to 47 months. In half of the families at least one parent is obese (risk group), in the other half both parents are normal weight (control group). Based on developmental and health-psychological models, we consider measurements at three levels: the child, the parents and parent-child-relationship. Three assessment points are approximately one year apart. At each assessment point we evaluate the psychological, social, and behavioral situation of the parents as well as the physical and psychosocial development of the child. Parents are interviewed, fill in questionnaires, and take part in standardized interaction tasks with their child in a feeding and in a playing context in our research laboratory. The quality of these video-taped parent-child interactions is assessed by analyzing them with standardized, validated instruments according to scientific standards. DISCUSSION: Strengths of the presented study are the prospective longitudinal design, the multi-informant approach, including the fathers, and the observation of parent-child interaction. A limitation is the variation in children's age.