This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background/Methods: Families of overweight and obese children require support to make sustainable lifestyle
changes to improve their child’s diet and activity behaviours and in turn weight status. The aim of this pre-post
intervention pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of an individualised home-based intervention for treatment
seeking overweight/obese 4–12 year olds and their caregivers. Baseline measures were used to develop a family-specific
intervention to improve the quality of the home environment. The intervention was delivered as individualised
written recommendations and resources plus phone call and home visit support. Baseline measures were repeated
approximately 6 months later.
Results: Complete data for 24 children was available. Parents reported that 43 % of intervention recommendations
were implemented ‘very much’. Some descriptive changes were observed in the home environment, most commonly
including fruit and vegetables in their child’s lunchbox, not providing food treats, and restricting children’s access to
chips/savoury snack biscuits. At the group level, minimal change was detected in children’s diet and activity behaviours
or weight status (all p > 0.05).
Conclusion: The study findings did not support intervention feasibility in its current form. Future interventions
should target the family food and activity environment, but also utilise an approach to address the complex social
circumstances which limit parent’s ability to prioritise healthy family lifestyle behaviours.
Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) 3/12/2014. http://www.ANZCTR.org.au.
ACTRN1261400126467
