FABTOTS - An early years community-based obesity prevention programme: A pilot study

FABTOTS, Fit Active Bodies babies and toddlers, was a community-based intervention programme targeting parents of children up to the age of three. It consisted of 2 hour weekly sessions over a six week period aimed at building parental confidence and fostering positive parenting through nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle choices. The programme was delivered by staff at the 18 Children Centres and one teenage pregnancy centre in Sandwell, one of most deprived and ethnically diverse towns in the UK. This paper outlines the development of FABTOTS and an evaluation of the short term impact of the pilot programme on the 173 parents who took part in the first year. Mixed methods of data collection were used; group discussions with the participants took place at the end of each session and facilitators? observations were noted for process evaluation. Participants completed a questionnaire about their experience of FABTOTS and behavioural changes. After six months, 25 participants took part in a follow up telephone interview to identify the sustainability of the reported behavioural changes. Findings suggested that the programme was feasible and sustainable in the short term but highlighted a number of issues: recruitment, acceptability, retention, duration and content of the programme. Challenges in developing rigorous acceptable tools for data collection in an area with predominantly low literacy rates were noted. Evaluation of its long term sustainability is highly recommended.