Adolescents as Agents of Parental Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Change: COPE Healthy Lifestyles TEEN Program.
Stephanie Kelly, Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Jacqueline Hoying
PMID 32917424WHAT IT FOUND
Among 169 parents, most said their teen shared nutrition and physical activity messages and found them helpful.
They reported changing their own and their teen's eating and activity habits, but this was self-report without a comparison group.
Key findings
01Of 169 parents, 134 reported that their teen shared newsletter information, and 126 said it was helpful.
02Of 169 parents, 108 reported changing a behavior themselves, mainly nutrition or physical activity.
03Of 169 parents, 122 reported behavior changes in their teens, mainly nutrition and physical activity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a secondary analysis of parent reports after the program, not a controlled test of the newsletters. There was no comparison group, so reported changes cannot be separated from the full 15-week teen program, school environment, or other factors. Behavior changes were self-reported by parents through open-ended questions, and exact dietary changes were not elicited. Only parents who returned postintervention questionnaires were included, so the results may not represent all parents in the program. The sample was mostly Hispanic, low-income, and less educated, and BMI was based on self-reported height and weight, so generalizability and measurement may be limited.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the newsletters caused parents or teens to change behavior. Teens also received the 15-week COPE program, and this report had no comparison group, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.