The HDHK team look forward to continuing the 2014  journey with the Maitland fathers and their children.

Good luck ‘Healthy Dad and kids!’ 

Register online for the Maitland program now.

By Shereen Jegtvig

NEW YORK Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:01pm EST

(Reuters Health) – Men who participated in a community fitness program for obese fathers lost weight and increased their activity levels in a new study from Australia.

The researchers’ main goal was to test the ‘Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids’ program in a real-world setting to see if it helped reduce obesity among the men participating – with the hope it would improve the eating habits and activity levels of their children too.

“Internationally, obesity in men and obesity prevention in children are public health priorities,” Philip Morgan, who led the study, told Reuters Health in an email.

Morgan is a researcher with the Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, New South Wales.

“Fathers have a unique and important role in the lifestyle behaviors of their children, yet little is known about how best to engage them in lifestyle interventions,” Morgan said.

Morgan said that Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids is unique as it engages dads to become family role models and spend quality time with their children using exercise and healthy eating as the engagement medium.

“Children become ‘personal trainers’ for their dads – innovatively applying ‘reciprocal reinforcement’ theory. This program engages men, a hard-to-reach group, and children simultaneously -a more cost-effective approach than separate programs,” Morgan said.

For the new study, Morgan and colleagues enrolled 116 overweight and obese fathers along with their elementary school aged children in 2010 to 2011. A total of 93 men – and their children – completed the study.

The participants were divided into two groups. The members of one group participated in the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids program and other others were put on a waiting list, which was used as a comparison group. (After the study was over, those men got to do the program).

The researchers took baseline measurements of all the participants during the two weeks before the program began. They measured the height, weight, blood pressure and heart rate of each man and asked about his daily physical activity and eating habits.

The Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids program included seven weeks of group sessions – four for just the fathers and three with both fathers and kids – taught by physical education teachers who had been specially trained.

The fathers were taught about weight loss, healthy eating, how to get their kids more active, and how to sustain a healthy lifestyle.

The participants were also given manuals and logbooks to take home to keep track of their progress.

The fathers and kids in the group on the waiting list were not given any health or fitness information during the study.

Physical measurements and assessments were repeated 14 weeks after the program began.

The researchers found that fathers who completed the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids program lost, on average, about 7.5 pounds, compared to the fathers on the waiting list who stayed about the same. The fathers on the program also increased their physical activity levels, cut their daily calorie intakes and reduced their resting heart rates compared to the wait-list group.

“Significant intervention effects were found for fathers’ weight, BMI, waist circumference, resting heart rate, physical activity levels, and dietary intake. For children, intervention effects were found for adiposity and physical activity,” Morgan said.

“Clearly the role of the parent in our children’s health is of paramount importance,” Jacob Barkley, an associate professor of exercise science at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, told Reuters Health in an email.

“These results demonstrate how a father may not just benefit themselves by changing their health behaviors, but they may have a measurable benefit to their children as well,” said Barkley, who was not involved in the study.

Barkley said the fact that the study was done in a community setting – not in a laboratory – improved the ability to generalize the results to the real world.

A program like this is something that could be implemented fairly easily in a variety of countries, including the United States, he said.

“The evidence strongly suggest that if you are a father, and are concerned with the your child’s weight and physical activity habits, you may want to change your own behavior. It could benefit you and your kids,” Barkley said.

SOURCE: Preventive Medicine, online December 29, 2013.

The Co-Director of the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition, Professor Morgan’s dedication and commitment to addressing obesity and promoting healthy lifestyles in children has seen him receive 27 academic awards – including nine national and international research excellence awards – over the past six years.

The world-first Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids program is one example of the obesity prevention initiatives Professor Morgan has designed that has been proven to help fathers manage their weight, engage children to eat more healthily, be more active and improve the overall quality of life of families.

“Men are seriously under-represented in weight loss research, which is a major concern considering 70 per cent of Australian males are considered to be overweight or obese,” said Professor Morgan.

“Dads initially sign up to our programs to lose a few kilos, thinking that it would also be nice to spend some quality time with their kids participating in some fun physical activities,” he said.

“During the program they come to understand the profound influence that their parenting practices, actions, behaviours, and attitudes have on their children – this realisation becomes a driving force behind their motivation to get fit and become more engaged in their children’s lives.”

The multi-award winning, evidence-based program uses the novel concept of reciprocal reinforcement by encouraging children to act as ‘little personal trainers’ for their dads in the home. In turn, the fathers are motivated by the importance of role modelling to engage with their children.

“The magic in Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids comes from both the dads and kids working together, motivated to help each other, and in turn changing their own behaviours,” said Professor Morgan.

“For example, the children are told it’s your job to help Dad eat well, so it’s important for you to eat your veggies at the dinner table because these veggies are really important for your Dad and he might copy you.

“Similarly, Dads in the program are shown how influential they can be in getting children to eat veggies by trying them in front of their children. In doing so, both are eating veggies for each other and may not have done it for themselves.”

The physical activity sessions are interactive, highly active, fun and focus on elements found in extensive research to be associated with optimal child development outcomes across physical, cognitive and social-emotional domains. This includes fundamental movement skills, health-related fitness-based activities and rough-and-tumble play. The program also has the added benefit of helping fathers become more involved with all aspects of their children’s lives, leading to enhanced social and emotional well-being for their children.

Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids has been tested through University of Newcastle-based trials and evaluated through numerous local community roll-outs across the Upper Hunter and Hunter Valley, and Great Lakes regions in New South Wales, Australia. Resources are available for communities and organisations anywhere in the world, with many of the messages transcending cultures.

“In general, a father’s love for his child, his desire to do his best for that child, and the unique way fathers’ play, physically interact and engage with their children; are universal feelings and behaviours that are incorporated and targeted in the program as motivating factors to deliver results in sustainable lifestyle change.”

Tapping into the psyche of men has also been key to the success of Professor Morgan’s other key research programs, with Morgan stating that, compared to women, men are reluctant to sign up to weight loss programs.

“The lack of understanding of motivators for weight-loss for men has led to programs that do not account for gender differences in design and delivery, and many men consider them to be unappealing,” Professor Morgan said.

“This is concerning, especially since the burden of disease falls disproportionately with men due to greater abdominal fat tissue which greatly increases their cardiovascular disease risk,” he said.

“With obesity costing the Australian economy approximately $60 billion per year, there is a real need for evidence-based, realistic, wide-reaching and easily disseminated programs that take into account the male physiological and psychological profile.”

Professor Morgan’s internationally acclaimed programs help men lose weight but don’t outlaw the beer or foods they enjoy or make participants undertake unsustainable exercise regimes.

In the SHED-IT program, weight loss messages are tailored for blokes and delivered in a light hearted manner with the latest research simplified in an understandable and palatable manner. The program also utilises technology and engages with participants through a DVD, the internet, video messages and SMS.

SHED-IT has been described by the prestigious Annals of Behavioral Medicine journal as “a momentous step toward addressing the long overlooked need to develop behavioural weight control programs that appeal predominantly to men and have wide reaching potential to impact obesity among the male half of our population.”

Professor Morgan’s Workplace POWER (Preventing Obesity Without Eating like a Rabbit) is targeted directly towards men and is delivered in the workplace. The program uses a DVD resource or information session, an interactive website and a number of gender-tailored resources to educate men on how to improve their own lifestyles. Workplace POWER was recognised with an inaugural National Preventative Health Award in 2013 for the best intiative in Workplace Health and Well-being for large workplaces.

“Instead of prescriptive diets to follow – which is likely to turn men off – these programs educate men about embedding physical activity and healthy eating into their day and use language and approaches they understand and relate to,” adds Professor Morgan.

“This can range from teaching them how to read food labels to understanding energy balance, overcoming urges and increasing incidental activity.”

Well regarded in his field, Professor Morgan has secured grants from the NH&MRC, Australian Research Council Discovery, Australian Research Council Linkage, Heart Foundation, NSW Health and large industry and community grants to help address the growing epidemic.

Although you wouldn’t read about it, making sure his customers get their news fresh off the press hasn’t come without some health sacrifices along the way for Maitland newsagent Rodney Porter. Working long hours and regularly eating takeaway food began taking a toll on the Thornton father-of-four who decided to take action and participated in Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids, where he lost more than 12kgs. The award-winning programme is a partnership between Coal & Allied, Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health, and the community. It’s being rolled out in communities across the Upper Hunter Valley, and runs for seven sessions over 12 weeks, focusing on weight loss, healthy eating, and physical activity sessions designed to help dads and their children bond.

Mr Porter, who has owned his newsagency for nine years, participated in the programme with his two older children Toby, 10 years old, and Tom, six. “I had got accustomed to taking the quick and easy approach with food. I start work around 4.30am every day and had got into the bad habit of eating on the run while driving around delivering papers,” Mr Porter said. “For breakfast I’d stop and have a pie or sausage roll, and at lunch time it would be a similar take away food. “I was starting to feel unhappy about my weight and it was only when my son brought home the brochure about the programme and asked me to do it that I felt motivated enough to take action.”

Mr Porter said he had a gym membership but never used it and many of the fathers at his son’s soccer games often talked about losing weight but didn’t do anything about it. “It’s funny because when I was doing the programme, some of my mates jokingly bagged me out for it, but when I started to lose weight some of their wives began nudging them to get involved too,” Mr Porter said. “Even though the programme finished about a month ago, I’ve remained conscious about what I put in my mouth and I make sure I get enough exercise and more time with the kids. “Now I go to the grocery shop and stock up on foods like cereals, yoghurts, and fruit for the week so that I don’t have to go out and buy food every day and it’s also saving money. “Also, instead of driving up each and every driveway to make my paper deliveries, I park at the end of the road and get out and walk. I’ve actually made a deliberate effort to increase my steps each day. “My family and kids are happier now because we play a lot more and do activities together like bike riding, walking, playing in the park, kicking the ball, and just bonding with each other.”

Healthy Dads Healthy Kids programme manager Dr Drew Miller said more than 25 dads and over 50 kids from Maitland had participated in the programme so far and it will come back to the city again.

Local Singleton dad Andrew Speechly said that he participated in the program last year and lost an outstanding 10 kilograms. “I joined the program to spend more time with my eight-year-old daughter Isabella,” Mr Speechly said. “The program not only allowed me to set time aside to spend with Isabella but it also equipped me with tools of self awareness and the basic principles for weight loss.”

Community members Clayton Barr (MP – Cessnock)  and Shaun Graham (Deputy Principal – Cessnock Public School) are among the local fathers looking to pass healthy lifestyle skills to their children and bring about some diet and physical activity changes within their families.

Programs are set to run in Muswellbrook/Scone, Singleton, Cessnock and Maitland in 2012

For more details contact Joel on 49216721 or email Joel.Cruickshank@newcastle.edu.au.

Twenty five fathers and their children from Scone, Muswellbrook and Aberdeen started the Healthy Dads Healthy Kids program in March 2012. There is growing support for HDHK in these communities and it was wonderful to see local schools, community members and organisations working together to recruit fathers into the program. These families will reap the benefits of dads focussed on their health and engaged with their kids in fun physical activity and healthy eating experiences. The HDHK team would like to wish the fathers in the program all the best and thank all those who were involved in planning and recruitment.

Local Aberdeen resident Shane Lloyd (pictured with his daughters Anna and Kate) took part in the HDHK program in 2011, losing 7.5kg in the process.

The Australian Healthy Eating Quiz asks how often you eat a range of healthy foods. The score shows how healthy your usual food habits are and gives ideas to improve. Repeat the quiz in a month to see the difference. Already eat healthy foods? Try the suggestions and see if you can score even higher.

Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids is due to start in Muswellbrook in October and Cessnock in November. For details of the program please hit the contact us link on the web page, phone Drew on 4921 6721 or email andrew.miller@newcastle.edu.au