Self-Paced Online Training on Healthy Beverage Policy for Child Care Providers

Determine if online training for child care providers increases knowledge and awareness of and adherence to California's Healthy Beverages in Child Care Act (AB2084) policy. Cluster, randomized controlled trial with 2 intervention groups and 1 control group. Licensed child care centers and family child care homes. Child care providers in 3 California regions. Thirty-minute, self-paced online training in English or Spanish, with or without 6-months of ongoing technical assistance. Providers’ self-reported knowledge and awareness of and adherence to AB2084 at baseline, after 1 and 6 months. Generalized estimating equations and generalized linear models, adjusted for the percentage of children on child care subsidies and region. Outcomes were similar between groups receiving and not receiving technical assistance. Providers receiving training (both intervention groups combined) experienced larger increases in knowledge (P = 0.002 and P = 0.003) and awareness (P = 0.004 and P = 0.001) of AB2084 compared with the control group after 1 and 6 months. All groups reported pre-post increases in adherence to AB2084. A brief online training supports increased knowledge and awareness of healthy beverage policy among child care providers. The training is available online and is free for California child care providers.