weSIPsmarter: Evaluating a Digital Health Intervention Aimed at Reducing Sugary Drinks Among Rural Head Start Preschoolers and Their Parents

weSIPsmarter: An Adaptation and Efficacy Trial to Evaluate a Behaviorally Based Digital Health Intervention Aimed at Reducing Sugary Drinks Among Rural Head Start Preschoolers and Their Parents

This study will include 12 rural Head Start programs, randomly assigned to one of two groups: weSIPsmarter vs. control. The main goal is to find out if weSIPsmarter helps reduce sugary drink consumption in preschool-aged children and their parents.

Sugary drinks are the largest single source of calories in the US diet and contribute approximately 8% and 7% of total energy intake for US youth and adults, respectively. Unfortunately, the prevalence of daily sugary drink intake is significantly higher in nonmetropolitan US counties, relative to metropolitan counties (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.32). Also, an estimated 47% of children age 2-5 consume sugary drinks daily. High sugary drink intake contributes to the development of numerous chronic conditions, including cancer. Despite convincing data on risky sugary drink behaviors in rural counties and among preschool-aged children, there are substantial gaps in the intervention literature. For example, few sugary drink interventions have targeted the needs of US rural regions, few have effectively used scalable technology to reduce child's sugary drinks, and most fail to report on external validity factors. This research addresses these needs and builds on the research team's extensive digital Health expertise and successful sugary drink research within rural communities. Head Starts across defined rural areas (i.e., RUCC 4-9) in Appalachia and the southern Black Belt will be included. The intervention targets parents as the agent of change and aims to improve parent-child dyad outcomes. Phase 1 is guided by the Adaptome framework. In partnership with rural Head Start staff and parents, a user-centered design process will be applied to adapt an existing evidence-based sugary drink interventions to a digital intervention. This new program, called weSIPsmarter, will be a highly interactive, structured program consisting of multiple evidence-based behavioral change components, including use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to encourage self-monitoring of beverage behaviors and parenting feeding practices, action planning, a resource help line, and drinking water vouchers for families with concerns related to in-home tap water quality. Phase 2 is guided by RE-AIM and includes a 2 group cluster RCT design [weSIPsmarter vs. control] with 3 assessment (pre, 9-week post, and 12-month follow-up) periods. Twelve Head Start center clusters with an average of 31 parent-child dyads per cluster (total of 372 parent-child dyads) will be randomized. It is hypothesized that weSIPsmarter will be more efficacious at reducing sugary drink consumption than control. Changes in secondary outcomes will also be evaluated, including parent-child dyad outcomes (e.g., diet quality, water, BMI, QOL, behavioral theory constructs) and maintenance at 12-months post intervention. Additional secondary aims will examine reach, describe parent engagement, and apply a mixed-methods process evaluation to evaluate adoption and implementation among Head Starts. Mediators and moderators (e.g., social determinant of health indicators) to engagement and efficacy outcomes will be explored, along with organizational-level maintenance. The long-term goal of this primary prevention research is to develop an efficacious sugary drink reduction intervention that has high reach among rural, low socioeconomic, children ages 2-5 and their parents.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Head Start sites: Head Start sites will be located in or adjacent to a rural county (RUCC 4-9), fall within the planned Appalachia and Black Belt regions, have an enrollment of 120 families or more, and exhibit commitment and capacity to the scope of work.
2. Participants: Children enrolled must be between the ages of 2 and 5 year, be enrolled in a participating Head Start, and have a legal guardian ("parent," able under law to consent for their child to participate) who has enrolled in the trial themselves and provided consent for the child. Only one parent-child dyad per household is eligible to participate in the trial.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parents could not have participated in formative work for this study completed under SBS 4522.