Exploring reasons for parental weight change after a preschooler’s sleep intervention

Abstract

Background: After a sleep intervention for their preschool-aged children, parents with bigger bodies at baseline showed a significant weight difference at 12-month follow-up compared to their control counter parts; in part due to weight maintenance or loss in the intervention-arm, and weight gain in the control-arm. Now, a new study is underway to elucidate possible reasons for these weight differences. Since food and cooking skills have been linked to body weight, we explore the use of these skills as a possible explanation for the weight change.Methods: Woman participants in bigger bodies at baseline were used to compare intervention (n=73) and control (n=65) arms self-reported cooking and food skill use at 36 or 42-month follow-up. Multiple linear regression A. was used to look for any significant associations between food and cooking skill use and study-arm. Multiple linear regression B. was used to look for significant associations between weight change and cooking or food use skills in each study arm. Results: Most cooking and food skill usage scores were unassociated with study-arm. Weight change was associated with use of ‘cooking method’ skills in the intervention group; for every 1 unit increase in reported cooking method subscale score, weight decreased 1.2kg (p-value 0.01), after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions: For this cohort, the use of cooking skills seems to be associated with weight change and may serve as a possible explanation for the observed difference in weight change between intervention and control groups after the preschooler’s sleep intervention. Additional research is needed to substantiate this finding and to examine if these findings are transferable to a larger, more diverse population group.