Principal Investigator:             Dr Laura McGowan

Name of the Study:                  HENRY III

Evaluation of a sustainable obesity prevention programme delivered at scale ‘HENRY’ (Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young): Effectiveness, cost effectiveness and its role in obesity prevention within the wider complex system.

Why is this Study important?

HENRY (Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young); a community-based programme, designed to alter early years settings, upskill the early-years workforce and improve lifestyle behaviours of parents/carers and their pre-school aged children.

What is the Research question/aim?: 

To establish the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an obesity prevention programme delivered at scale, including its potential role from a wider systems perspective. The primary objective of the trial is to determine whether HENRY reduces child BMI z-score (child age- and sex-adjusted BMI) in 12 months.

What the Study involves:

Participants are followed up at 12 months (short term) and 3yrs (medium term). (Longer term BMI trajectories are estimated using matched cohorts of Millennium Cohort Study [MCS] participants).

Outcomes will be collected from parents at 12-months and from routinely collected data at 3 years post parent registration. Outcomes from staff will be collected 12 months post baseline data collection. Data is collected at baseline, prior to programme commencing, and then at 12 months and 3years. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used throughout the trial.

Who can take part in the Study?

This study is being run in SureStart locations across the UK.

Contact Information:

Dr Laura McGowan                                  Laura.McGowan@qub.ac.uk

Institute for Global Food Security (Centre for Public Health)

Queen's University Belfast

Royal Victoria Hospital Site

Belfast

BT12 6BA