Family Matters Intervention

The Family Matters Intervention aims to create a new model of care for child health in primary care using community health workers (CHWs) as interventionists and mobile health technology to intervene in real-time on parental and family behavior. This study is one of the first to use ecological momentary intervention (i.e., mHealth) to intervene on parental stress to improve the home food environment, with a focus on family mealtimes, to reduce the persistent weight-related health disparities across race/ethnicity. Drawing on Family Systems Theory, the intervention aims to change individual and family-level behaviors using cutting edge mixed-methods and study designs.

This study uses state-of-the-art intervention methods including EMI, video feedback, and home visiting methods in partnership with CHWs. Virtual versus hybrid home visiting models are also being tested to see which combination of factors predict increases in healthful home food environments, child diet quality, and decreases in child BMI. This three-arm intervention tests the following combinations:

1. Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI);
2. EMI+Hybrid Home Visiting (HV) with a Community Health Worker (CHW) +Video Feedback; and
3. EMI+Virtual HV with a CHW+Video Feedback.

All three arms will receive 16 weeks of the intervention and an 8-week maintenance phase allowing for progressively less support of families so they can increase self-efficacy and sustainability of behavior change. Eligible children and their families (n=525) will be recruited through primary care clinics. Families from the Twin Cities representing diverse communities (i.e., Black/African, Asian/Hmong, Latinx, Native American, White) will be enrolled in the study.