Mothers' Action Project to prevent early tooth decay and reduce obesity risk in young children

Mothers' Action Project for Child Health

This 12-month program will try group education and social-network support for South Asian mothers with young children to reduce early childhood tooth decay and lower obesity risk.

Quick facts

• Phase: Not applicable
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 460 (estimated)
• Ages: 12 Months to 45 Years
• Sex: All
• Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Worcester (Academic / other)
• Locations: 1 site (New York, New York)
• Trial ID: NCT06753669 on ClinicalTrials.gov

What this trial studies

MAP-CH is a cluster randomized trial enrolling 66 neighborhood clusters (about seven mothers per cluster) with one child per family for a total of roughly 460 children, randomized 1:1 to intervention or control. The intervention delivers 18 home-based, group sessions over 12 months in Bengali or the local cluster language led by bilingual facilitators to teach oral-health and healthy feeding practices, increase maternal assertiveness, and build supportive social networks. The control arm receives educational materials and dental referral information. Recruitment uses a Mapping Project with outreach workers visiting homes in targeted low-income South Asian neighborhoods in New York to identify eligible mothers of children aged 12–48 months on Medicaid/CHIP.

Who should consider this trial

Good fit: Ideal candidates are low-income South Asian (e.g., Bangladeshi) mothers age 18 or older who are the primary caregiver, speak Bengali/Hindi/Urdu, and have a child aged 12–48 months enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP and able to participate in home-based sessions.

Not a fit: Mothers or children with exclusionary medical or cognitive conditions, children born under 5 lbs, families planning extended travel or unable to attend sessions, or those not speaking the required languages are unlikely to benefit.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, the program could produce lasting reductions in early childhood caries and obesity risk by changing maternal feeding behaviors and building supportive social networks.

How similar studies have performed: Community maternal-education and peer-support programs have shown modest improvements in feeding and oral-health behaviors, but combining structured social-network building with oral-health and obesity prevention in South Asian immigrant mothers is relatively novel.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

* Mother:

  * Age \>=18;
  * Speaks and reads/writes Bengali or Hindi/Urdu;
  * Mother born in a South Asian country;
  * Mother is primary caretaker of child
* Child:

  * Aged \>=12 and \<=48 months
  * Has Medicaid or CHIP (NYS health plan for low income families not qualifying for Medicaid)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Mother:

  * Unable to provide informed consent,
  * Lack of availability--either plans to travel for \> 1 month during 12 month initial study period or other barriers to attendance;
  * Mother has exclusionary health condition--either intellectual/cognitive or medical.
* Child:

  * Weighed \< 5lbs at birth,
  * Has an exclusionary health condition and/or is taking long term (\>1 m) antibiotics;
  * Not the youngest eligible child in family

Where this trial is running

New York, New York

• UMass Chan Medical School - Remote field office — New York, New York, United States (Recruiting)

Study contacts

• Principal investigator: Alison Karasz — UMass Chan
• Study coordinator: Alison Karasz, PhD

Conditions Dental Caries; Obesity Risk; early childhood caries; child obesity; social network intervention