LAUNCH-HV, but not LAUNCH-clinic, significantly reduced BMIz compared with PC by posttreatment, indicating the need for intensive behavioral intervention, including home visitation, to address weight management in obese preschool children.

Objective To develop and test a home food and activity instrument to discriminate between the home environments of obese and healthy weight preschool children. Design A modified questionnaire about home environments was tested as an observation tool. Setting Family homes. Participants Thirty-five obese children with at least one obese caregiver were compared to forty-seven healthy weight children with no obese caregivers. Main Outcome Measures Home observation assessments were conducted to evaluate the availability of devices supporting activity behaviors and foods based on availability, accessibility, and readiness to be eaten. Analysis Agreement statistics were conducted to analyze psychometrics and MANOVAs were conducted to assess group differences, significance, P < .05. Results Home observations showed acceptable agreement statistics between independent coders across food and activity items. Families of obese preschoolers were significantly less likely to have fresh vegetables available or accessible in the home, were more likely to have a TV in the obese child’s bedroom and had fewer physical activity devices compared to healthy weight preschoolers. Conclusions and Implications Families of young children live in home environments that were discriminatively characterized based on home observations. Future tool refinement will further clarify the impact of the home environment on early growth.

Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01546727.