•  Magic of reciprocal reinforcement: In HDHK, reciprocal reinforcement is employed through motivating positive changes in fathers’ lifestyle behaviours, which are subsequently reflected in the child’s behaviour and vice versa. The program engaged dads to become role models for their children while engaging children to become ‘personal trainers’ for their dads. For example, the program motivated fathers to engage in physical activity with their children and involve them in healthy eating opportunities. In turn, the children were encouraged to prompt and encourage their fathers to adopt healthier behaviours. This reciprocal reinforcement of healthier behaviours between father and child(ren) was a major feature and key to the success of the program.

•  Improving family relationships through physical activity and healthy eating: As well as the health benefits that fathers and children derive through the program, HDHK is demonstrated to improve family relationships. The program engages dads to spend quality time with their children using exercise and healthy eating as the engagement medium. The physical activity arena is well suited to fathers’ masculine interaction styles, and facilitates fun and active play. This positive, unique involvement fosters closeness between fathers and their kids.

•  Targeting and tailoring for fathers: Most research-based and commercial weight loss programs have been designed specifically with women in mind. These programs fail to embed motivators relevant to men. As such, the majority of existing programs do not appeal to or engage men. HDHK has been designed and tailored to engage fathers through use of humour, language and content that caters for men’s physical, psychological and sociological needs. HDHK is a program that appeals to fathers’ fundamental motivation to be a good role model and do the best they can for their children.

Sessions are 90 minutes long and are conducted out of school hours. With the sponsorship of the Coal & Allied Community Development Fund and the Hunter Medical Research Institute, the community trial is FREE to participants.

During the 9 session program fathers will:

• Learn how to be healthy lifestyle role models for their children
• Learn about the importance of physical activity for maintaining a healthy weight
• Learn the secrets of getting children to eat their vegetables
• Have fun with their children
• Learn ways to get the whole family involved in a healthy lifestyle

The next stage in the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids program is to adapt the completed pilot study to a world first sustainable educational program in a large regional community.

The upper Hunter Valley of NSW Australia has been selected for this purpose and HDHK program will be delivered through local schools in this location during the second half of 2010 and into 2011.

You can become involved in 2 ways:

• Participants in the HDHK program
• Trainers / Facilitators

Participants

Fathers (or step-fathers) who would like to become fitter and lose a few kilos, and who have primary age children at any of these schools or areas are invited to participate in the program.

Your contribution is your time. Sessions can be arranged at a time to fit in with your work schedule and we will try for a location convenient to you. More than likely it will be a public school in close proximity in your immediate area. It will be advertised through the school and in the local media.

Trainers /Facilitators

The key to this program’s sustainability lies in our ability to train health or education leaders in each community to implement the program over the long term.

A rigorous evaluation of the program will measure the effectiveness of the community based version of the HDHK program and will provide evidence for making this a statewide or national approach to the obesity issue.
If you would like to be part of the program, you can use the Contact Form on this website or ring Myles on 4985 4038 or Victoria on 4921 6884.

All participants, trainers and facilitators will be participating in the second phase of the HDHK research project evaluating the effectiveness of the community based obesity prevention program.

How strong is my HDHK dad

A dad in a HDHK activity session

HDHK includes 1 x Dads only workshop followed by 8 x 90 minute face-to-face sessions for dads and kids and a home-based component driven by the children. During the program, dads spend quality time with their kids participating and fun, engaging and educational activities that are beneficial to all aspects of their physical and mental health. Both fathers and children learn healthy eating habits and active lifestyle approaches. Dads also learn evidence-based parenting strategies to optimise the physical and mental well-being of their children.

HDHK has been evaluated in six communities across the Hunter and Great Lakes regions (NSW), in partnership with local schools. The results to date have been overwhelmingly positive with substantial long-term improvements in various health outcomes for both dads and kids. Over 500 families (>1000 children) have participated in the program to date. The program’s success is also attributable to the strong partnership between the University of Newcastle (UoN), industry sponsor Coal and Allied, HMRI and the local schools and communities.

Of most significance has been the external recognition HDHK has received in the form of major national/international awards, requests to adapt HDHK to international communities, unprecedented media interest and invited presentations to disseminate the findings to a broad range of stakeholders.

• For the first session, Dads come on their own and find out how to be healthy role models for their children
• For the next 8 weeks, you come along with your dad to have fun being active and getting fit together
• Enjoy the company of other kids involved in a healthy program

What will you get out of it?

• You can help dad lose weight, get fitter and eat better
• You will spend quality time and have great fun with your dad
• You will get great ideas about how to cook and eat healthily
• You will play games and compete in  ‘rough and tumble’ activities designed for you and your dad

It is well established that obesity is associated with a range of adverse physiological and psychological health consequences. In Australia, two-thirds of men are overweight or obese, and these statistics are similar in many developed countries.  Yet men are less likely to attempt weight loss than women and are notoriously difficult to recruit to weight loss programs.

In addition to the health consequences of being obese as an adult male, those who are fathers also place their child at increased risk for obesity. Earlier research found that obese children with an obese father were nearly three times more likely to remain obese as an adult compared with those children whose father was not obese.

Obesity in fathers has also been found to be associated with a four-fold increase in the risk of obesity for both sons and daughters at 18 years of age, which further  increases childrens risk of various lifestyle diseases in adulthood.

Dads as role models

It is well established that parents have a critical influence on the development of positive health behaviors in children. Parents influence the food and physical activity home environment through their own behaviors, attitudes, modeling, parenting styles and child feeding practices.

Physically active parents more likely to have physically active children.

While there is some research consensus that lifestyle interventions for children should involve parents as key agents of change, systematic reviews highlight the uncertainty around optimal strategies to target and involve parents.

Research to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of well-designed studies that target parental physical activity and dietary behaviors to influence both the parent and the child are a priority.

Family-based interventions have traditionally engaged mothers . Fathers have not been exclusively targeted and their influence on children’s physical activity and eating behaviour is commonly overlooked.

A number of studies have demonstrated the relationship between mothers’ health and behaviors and their children’s well-being but the specific influence of fathers on their children has only recently been examined.

Previous research demonstrated that it was the parenting styles and behaviors of fathers, and not mothers, that predicted preschool children’s overweight status.  Further research found that fathers’ parenting style predicted better maintenance of weight loss in obese children.

Although a body of evidence is accumulating relating to the role of the father in a child’s development, there is a paucity of experimental research on the impact of fathers on childrens physical activity and dietary habits.

Aim of HDHK

The primary aim of the Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids RCT was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a program that targeted overweight/obese fathers to lose weight, and in turn act as role models to promote positive physical activity and eating behaviors for their children.

The research team hypothesized that health outcomes and behaviors of both fathers and children would improve in the intervention group when compared to a wait-list control group at 6-month follow-up.