Helping families overcome social barriers to support healthy weight in children
Official title: Addressing social determinants of health in child obesity treatment using community health workers: the role of parental bandwidth in treatment effectiveness - feasibility study for full - scale RCT
Funded at Children's Mercy Hosp (Kansas City, Mo) · NIH-11286787 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This pilot will see whether community health workers who connect families to social supports help children in family-based weight programs do better.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Children's Mercy Hosp (Kansas City, Mo) NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Kansas City, United States) |
| Project start | April 1, 2024 |
| Project end | January 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $266,222 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DK139363-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11286787 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Children ages 0–12 with overweight or obesity whose families face social risk factors (for example, housing instability, food insecurity, lack of transportation, or Medicaid insurance) would be ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
Families without significant social needs, children outside the 0–12 age range, or those not participating in a family-based obesity program are unlikely to benefit from this specific intervention.
What this research studies
If your family faces challenges like unstable housing, lack of transportation, or trouble affording food, this project will offer a community health worker (CHW) who helps connect you to local resources and supports. Families with children in the target age range who also have social risk factors will be enrolled in a pilot program tied to a family-focused obesity treatment, and the team will compare how well families engage and how children’s weight and activity change. The study will measure things like child BMI and activity (using tools such as accelerometers) and will examine whether improving parents’ ability to manage scarce resources (“bandwidth”) helps children benefit more from the weight program. This pilot is designed to test feasibility and acceptability as preparation for a larger randomized trial.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could help more children gain lasting benefit from family-based weight programs by reducing social barriers and increasing parents’ capacity to support healthy behaviors.
How similar studies have gone: Community health worker and social-needs navigation programs have helped other pediatric health outcomes, but their direct effects on child obesity and on parental 'bandwidth' remain only partly tested and need larger trials.
Where this research is happening
-
Children's Mercy Hosp (Kansas City, Mo)
Kansas City, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Laroche, Helena Hillman — Children's Mercy Hosp (Kansas City, Mo)
- Study coordinator: Laroche, Helena Hillman
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.