Background: Excess weight in children is a continuing health issue. Community-based children's weight management programmes have had some effect in promoting weight loss. Families from minority ethnic communities are less likely to complete these programmes but, to date, no programmes have been culturally adapted to address this.
Objectives: We aimed to (1) culturally adapt an existing weight management programme for children aged 4-11 years and their families to make it more suited to Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities but inclusive of all families and (2) evaluate the adapted programme to assess its feasibility and acceptability, as well as the feasibility of methods, for a future full-scale trial.
Design: In phase I, a cultural adaptation of a programme that was informed by formative research and guided by two theoretical frameworks was undertaken and in phase II this adapted programme was delivered in a cluster-randomised feasibility study (for which the clusters were the standard and adapted children's weight management programmes).
Setting: Birmingham: a large, ethnically diverse UK city.
Participants: In phase I, Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents of children with excess weight, and, in phase II, children aged 4-11 years who have excess weight and their families.
Interventions: A culturally adapted children's weight management programme, comprising six sessions, which was delivered to children and parents, targeting diet and physical activity and incorporating behaviour change techniques, was developed in phase I and delivered in the intervention arm to 16 groups in phase II. The eight groups in the comparator arm received the standard (unadapted) children's weight management programme.
Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the proportion of Pakistani and Bangladeshi families completing (attending ≥ 60% of) the adapted programme. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of all families completing the adapted programme, the feasibility of delivery of the programme, the programme's acceptability to participants, the feasibility of trial processes and the feasibility of collection of outcome and cost data.
Results: The proportion of Pakistani and Bangladeshi families and all families completing the adapted programme was 78.8% [95% confidence interval (CI) 64.8% to 88.2%] and 76.3% (95% CI 67.0% to 83.6%), respectively. The programme was feasible to deliver with some refinements and was well received. Ninety-two families participated in outcome data collection. Data collection was mostly feasible, but participant burden was high. Data collection on the cost of programme delivery was feasible, but costs to families were more challenging to capture. There was high attrition over the 6-month follow-up period (35%) and differential attrition in the two study arms (29% and 52% in the intervention and comparator arms, respectively).
Limitations: The study was not designed to address the issue of low participant uptake of children's weight management programmes. The design of a future trial may include individual randomisation and a 'minimal intervention' arm, the acceptability of which has not been evaluated in this study.
Conclusions: The theoretically informed, culturally adapted children's weight management programme was highly acceptable to children and families of all ethnicities. Consideration should be given to a future trial to evaluate clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the adapted programme, but the design of a future trial would need to address the logistics of data collection, participant burden and study attrition.
Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN81798055.
Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 23, No. 33. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. Kate Jolly is part-funded by the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands.
Keywords: CHILD; ETHNIC GROUPS; FEASIBILITY STUDIES; OBESITY; OVERWEIGHT.
Many programmes have been designed for children with excess weight and their families to help them try and lose weight. Often families start going to these programmes but do not complete them. This has been noted to be an issue in families from ethnic minority communities. We aimed to adapt an existing programme for families of primary school children with excess weight to make it more suitable for Pakistani and Bangladeshi families. We asked parents from these communities who had experience of the existing programme what they thought about it and what they would like to change. We used this information to help us adapt the existing programme. We also aimed to make the programme acceptable to families of all ethnicities. We then aimed to (1) test delivery of the adapted programme, (2) see whether or not it was acceptable to Pakistani and Bangladeshi families and families of other ethnicities and (3) test methods to be used in a future research study to determine whether or not the adapted programme helps children to lose weight and provides value for money. We asked parents and children who attended and the staff delivering the new programme for their views. A panel of Pakistani and Bangladeshi parents helped us to plan our study methods. The programme was successfully delivered and the parents, children and staff all enjoyed it. Overall, 76% of families from all ethnic backgrounds who started attending the programme completed it. This was substantially higher than the 58% of families who completed the standard (unadapted) programme. We identified several issues that we would need to take into account when designing a future study. These include making sure that the families taking part are not overburdened and that we take steps to make sure that as many families as possible are followed up until the end of the study.