Abstract
Purpose: Obesity prevention is increasingly focused on early childhood, but toddlers have not been well-studied, and children born preterm are frequently excluded. The Play & Grow Cohort was established to investigate child growth in relation to parent-child interactions in mealtime and non-mealtime settings.
Participants: Between December 2017 and May 2019, 300 toddlers and primary caregivers were recruited from records of a large paediatric care provider in Columbus, Ohio, USA. This report describes recruitment of the cohort and outlines the data collection protocols for two toddler and two preschool-age visits. The first study visit coincided with enrolment and occurred when children (57% boys) were a mean (SD) calendar age of 18.2 (0.7) months.
Findings to date: Children in the cohort are diverse relative to gestational age at birth (16%, 28-31 completed weeks’ gestation; 21%, 32-36 weeks’ gestation; 63%, ≥37 weeks’ gestation) and race/ethnicity (8%, Hispanic; 35%, non-Hispanic black; 46%, non-Hispanic white). Caregivers enrolled in the cohort are primarily the child’s biological mother (93%) and are diverse in age (range 18-54 years), education (23%, high school or less; 20% graduate degree) and annual household income (27%, <US$20 000 24%, ≥US$90 000). Parent-child interactions were video-recorded during play in the laboratory at 18 months (n=299) and during play, reading and mealtime in the home (n=284) at 24 months. The preschool phase of the study was impacted by COVID-19. Parent-child interactions were video-recorded during play and mealtime at home at 36 months (n=141) and during a standardised buffet meal in the laboratory at 42 months (n=50). Caregivers unable to participate in face-to-face visits due to COVID-19 completed questionnaires.
Future plans: Assessment during middle childhood is being planned. Future visits will include anthropometric measurements and parent-child interactions at mealtime. School-based outcomes are additionally being considered.
Keywords: community child health; nutrition & dietetics; public health.
【저자키워드】 public health, community child health, nutrition &, dietetics, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, public health, protocol, children, outcome, Laboratory, Cohort, Community, age, childhood, USA, recruitment, assessment, Care, mother, Interaction, Caregiver, Questionnaires, gestation, growth, enrolment, finding, Future, enrolled, occurred, include, recruited, excluded, increasingly, impacted, study visit, 【제목키워드】 obesity, USA, prospective observational cohort,