The Infant Feeding Activity and Nutrition Trial (INFANT) an early intervention to prevent childhood obesity: cluster-randomised controlled trial

Parent and infant data will be collected using parent self-completion questionnaires, apart from dietary intake data which will be collected by telephone interview. All data (appropriate to the age of the child) will be collected every three months, corresponding with the six intervention sessions. Repeated data collection is necessary given the rapid changes in height, weight, eating and activity behaviours in infants. The measures collected are detailed below:
1. Dietary intake: dietary intake for the mother and father will be assessed using The Cancer Council’s Dietary Questionnaire for Epidemiological Studies (Version 3) at baseline and study conclusion. This questionnaire is an updated version of the semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire specifically developed for the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. Child’s dietary intake will be assessed by telephone-administered multi-pass 24-hour recall with parents. Visual aids will be provided to primary carers in advance of interviews to help in the estimation of quantities of food consumes. Three days of dietary data will be collected (including one weekend day) at 9 and 18 months
2. Physical activity: parents will report their frequency and duration in physical activity during the previous week using the Active Australia Survey. Given the lack of validated measures of physical activity for infants, this outcome will be assessed using parent report of the:
2.1. Child's enjoyment of playing with parents
2.2. Child's enjoyment of physical activity (movement, play)
2.3. Child’s enjoyment of playing with objects and toys
2.4. Child is curious and explores environment through a variety of physical activities
2.5. Child moves in new ways when challenged with interesting activities
In addition, at 12 and 18 months parents will be asked to report the number of hours their child typically spends playing outdoors on weekdays and weekend days
3. Sedentary behaviours: parents will be asked the amount of time the infant spends watching television on a typical weekday and on a typical weekend day, and to estimate the amount of time each day that the child spends immobile. Parents will also report the total time they spend watching television during their leisure-time in a typical week
4. Homefood environment: three aspects of the home food environment will be assessed. Aspects of nutrition knowledge focused around nutrition targets of the intervention will be assessed using modified subscales of the validated Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire, Parent Feeding Style will be assessed using the Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ), the Caregivers Feeding Style Questionnaire CFSQ (Hughes 2005). Home food availability and accessibility will be assessed using a self-reported shelf inventory on the availability of foods and fluids
5. Family physical activity and sedentary environment: parents will be asked general questions relating to their knowledge about physical activity in early childhood, to estimate the time they spend playing with their child, the frequency with which they take their child to the park or playground and an audit checklist on the physical activity and sedentary home environment
6. Standard demographic and socio-economic information will be collected by parental report
7. Anthropometric measures (height/length and weight) on the infant and parents will be collected by trained staff

Current secondary outcome measures as of 22/08/2012:
The majority of questions relating to parent-child interaction will be assessed via the primary outcome measures. The study will, however attempt to assess parenting styles and its relationship with diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviour at baseline and the 18 month conclusion within scheduled questionnaires. In terms of knowledge and attitudes specific to obesity and acceptability of the intervention these will be assessed by questions developed by the team which are specific to content relating to the intervention and assessed at baseline, 9 months and 18 months.

Primary and secondary outcome measures will be reassessed 2 and 3.5 years post intervention.

Previous secondary outcome measures until 22/08/2012:
The majority of questions relating to parent-child interaction will be assessed via the primary outcome measures. The study will, however attempt to assess parenting styles and its relationship with diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviour at baseline and the 18 month conclusion within scheduled questionnaires. In terms of knowledge and attitudes specific to obesity and acceptability of the intervention these will be assessed by questions developed by the team which are specific to content relating to the intervention and assessed at baseline, 9 months and 18 months.