THE EFFECT OF ADULT PARTICIPATION IN A SCHOOL-BASED FAMILY INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE CHILDRENS DIET AND PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY - THE CHILD AND ADOLESCENT TRIAL FOR CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

Background. There are strong theoretical reasons for including a famil y component with a school-based intervention aimed at eating, activity , and smoking behaviors, but the empirical findings to date are limite d and show mixed results. The overall CATCH family intervention added only knowledge and attitudinal effects, but no additional behavioral o utcomes. This study provides a dose analysis of the family component o f the CATCH study by assessing the effect of the level of adult partic ipation. Method. This secondary analysis included students who attende d a CATCH family intervention school during all 3 years of the study, The extent of the adult-child interaction, the key aspect of the CATCH family intervention, was measured by the number of activity packets t hat an adult household member completed with the child. Multiple regre ssion analysis was used to assess the association of adult participati on with the child's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to die t and physical activity. Results. Statistically significant results su ggested that dose effects were found for knowledge and attitudes relat ed to diet and physical activity. These effects were more pronounced f or minority and male students. Conclusions. These results suggest that dose response of a family intervention has been shown in the acquisit ion of positive knowledge and attitudes toward health habit changes. T he methodology of dose response can be applied to other health promoti on projects. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.