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The Role of Maternal Social Networks on the Outcomes of a Home-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Pilot Intervention

Kayla de la Haye
Kayla de la Haye
, 
Brooke M. Bell
Brooke M. Bell
 and 
Sarah-Jeanne Salvy
Sarah-Jeanne Salvy
   | Aug 01, 2019
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Article Category: research-article
Published Online: Aug 01, 2019
Page range: 7 - 28
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/joss-2019-004
Keywords
© 2019 Kayla de la Haye et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1.

Help and encouragement to be healthy within mothers’ personal networks. Each network represents the personal network of the participating mothers pre-intervention (baseline), where nodes represent the mother (black node) and her named alters, and ties represent social connections. Alters that provided the mother with “help or encouragement to have a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy foods, or be active” are colored orange, and alters that did not provide this type of support are colored blue (white nodes = missing data). Personal network data from two mothers was missing at baseline.
Help and encouragement to be healthy within mothers’ personal networks. Each network represents the personal network of the participating mothers pre-intervention (baseline), where nodes represent the mother (black node) and her named alters, and ties represent social connections. Alters that provided the mother with “help or encouragement to have a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy foods, or be active” are colored orange, and alters that did not provide this type of support are colored blue (white nodes = missing data). Personal network data from two mothers was missing at baseline.

Characteristics of mothers’ egocentric social networks at baseline and post-intervention

Mother network characteristic (% of mothers’ social network ties that are…)Baseline M (SD)Post-intervention M (SD)
Health influence relationships (%)
    Provides health information/advice74.3 (28.2)66.7 (31.8)
    Encourages health68.8 (34.9)73.9 (30.1)
    Eat/prepare food with47.2 (24.9)49.3 (24.3)
    Do physical activity with42.4 (30.3)42.0 (25.1)
    Health barrier19.6 (25.8)12.3 (15.3)
Female (%)59.6 (21.8)60.9 (20.5)
Relationship type (%)
    Family64.9 (26.8)66.7 (24.6)
    Friend19.7 (23.6)23.2 (24.0)
    Spouse/boyfriend8.5 (8.7)10.1 (9.7)
Location (%)
    Same household25.1 (21.9)29.0 (15.3)
    Same neighborhood31.0 (33.9)24.6 (25.6)
Contact daily or almost daily (%)40.4 (30.6)50.0 (20.7)
Network density0.77 (0.28)0.85 (0.17)

Correlations between mothers’ social network characteristics (B = baseline and P = post-intervention) and mother and infant health outcomes post-intervention

Mother network characteristicMother outcomesInfant outcomes
BMISSB serves/dayFruit serves/dayVeg serves/dayStep count/dayWLZSSB serves/day
Health relationships (%)
    Provides health info/advice.41* (B)
    Encourages health−.42+ (P).50* (B)
    Eat/prepare food with−.38+ (B)−.39+ (P)
    Do physical activity with
    Health barrier.37+ (B)
% female−.50* (P).37+ (P)−.64* (P)
Relationship type (%)
    Family−.46* (P).47* (B)
    Friend.64* (P)
    Spouse/boyfriend
Location (%)
    Same household−.39+ (P).41+ (P)
    Same neighborhood
    Same household or neighborhood.42* (P).43+ (P)
Contact daily/almost daily (%)−.43* (B).53* (P)
Network density−.61* (B)

Descriptive statistics of change in the mother and infant outcomes by study condition (N = 26 dyads)

Change score (post - baseline)InterventionControl
MSDNMSDN
Mother
    weight in kg−0.533.83160.003.088
    BMI−0.071.4614−0.041.168
    SSB serves/day0.222.43170.922.759
    fruit serves/day−0.140.9217−0.194.389
    vegetable serves/day0.471.49170.092.179
    steps/day−97740288−346735362
Infant
    WLZ1.582.6113−0.291.237
    SSB serves/day0.110.30160.941.458

Descriptive statistics of mother and infant demographics and outcomes (N = 26 dyads)

Mother or infant characteristicBaselinePost-intervention
M (SD) / N (%)M (SD) / N (%)
Mother demographics
    M (SD) age in years at baseline28.4 (7.6)
    Race/ethnicity (%)a
        Hispanic/Latina21 (80.1)
        Black/African American2 (7.7)
        White, non-Hispanic6 (23.1)
    Annual household income (%)b
        $9,999 or less8 (30.8)
        $10,000 - $29,99912 (46.2)
        $30,000 - $49,9994 (15.4)
        $50,000 - $69,9991 (3.8)
    Marital status (%)b
        Single13 (52.0)
        Married7 (28.0)
        Divorced1 (4.0)
        Living with spouse4 (16.0)
Infant demographics
    M (SD) age in months at baseline3.8 (2.7)
    Female (%)16 (61.5)
Intervention arm (%)17 (65.4)
Mother health outcomes
    M (SD) BMIc29.2 (5.9)29.1 (6.5)
    N (%) overweight/obese18 (69.2)19 (73.1)
    M (SD) SSBd serves/day1.0 (1.0)1.5 (2.3)
    M (SD) fruit serves/day1.0 (1.6)0.9 (2.2)
    M (SD) vegetable serves/day0.7 (0.9)1.0 (1.5)
    M (SD) steps/day3996 (1713)4162 (2922)
Infant health outcomes
    M (SD) WLZe−0.46 (2.3)0.70 (2.3)
    N (%) at risk for overweight5 (29.4)6 (25.0)
    M (SD) SSBd serves/day0.04 (0.2)0.4 (1.0)

Correlations between mothers’ social network characteristics (B = baseline and P = post-intervention) and change in mother and infant health outcomes

Mother network characteristicMother outcomesInfant outcomes
Change in kgChange in SSB serves/dayChange in Fruit serves/dayChange in vegetable serves/dayChange in step count/dayChange in WLZChange in SSB serves/day
Health relationships (%)
    Provides health info/advice
    Encourages health.39+ (P)
    Eat/prepare food with
    Do physical activity with−.56+ (P)
    Health barrier.41* (P)
% female.37+ (P).75* (P)
Relationship type (%)
    Family.39+ (P)−.38+ (B)-49* (P)
    Friend.61* (P)
    Spouse/boyfriend.45+ (P)
Location (%)
    Same household−.55* (P).48* (B)
    Same neighborhood.49* (P).34+ (P).50* (P)
Contact daily/almost daily (%)−.48* (B).68** (B).48* (P)
Network density−.43* (P)−.53* (B)
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Language:
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