Are fathers being included enough in childhood obesity prevention programs?
This study examined how often fathers are included in family-based interventions designed to prevent childhood obesity and identified characteristics of programs that successfully engage fathers compared with those that only include mothers.
What We Did and Why We Did It
Researchers reviewed 85 family-based childhood obesity prevention interventions published between 2008 and 2015. They examined whether programs included mothers, fathers, or both parents, the number of participating fathers and mothers, the age of children targeted, intervention settings, theories used, and funding sources. Researchers compared interventions that included fathers with those that only included mothers to understand what factors may influence father participation.
Parents play an important role in shaping children’s eating, physical activity, and health behaviours, but childhood obesity research has historically focused much more on mothers than fathers. Since fathers can influence family routines, food choices, and children’s health behaviours, researchers wanted to understand how often fathers are included in prevention programs and identify ways to better engage them.
What We Found
What We Can Learn From This
Fathers were significantly underrepresented in childhood obesity prevention programs. Across all interventions, fathers made up only 6% of parent participants compared with mothers, and half of the interventions that included fathers had 10 or fewer participating fathers. Father involvement was lowest in programs focused on pregnancy and infants (0–1 year) and highest in programs targeting children ages 6–10 years. Programs that included fathers were also more likely to use approaches that viewed the family as a connected system, such as Ecological Systems Theory.
Fathers are an important part of the family environment and should be intentionally included in childhood health programs. Designing recruitment strategies that specifically reach fathers, creating father-friendly program settings, and recognizing the role of all caregivers can help make family-based interventions more inclusive and effective.
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