Differences in Home Food and Activity Environments between Obese and Healthy Weight Families of Preschool Children

Abstract Objective To develop and test a home food and activity instrument to discriminate between the home environments of obese and healthy weight preschool children. Design A modified questionnaire about home environments was tested as an observation tool. Setting Family homes. Participants A total of 35 obese children with at least 1 obese caregiver were compared with 47 healthy weight children with no obese caregivers. Main Outcome Measures Home observation assessments were conducted to evaluate the availability of devices supporting activity behaviors and foods based on availability, accessibility, and readiness to be eaten. Analysis Agreement statistics were conducted to analyze psychometrics and MANOVAs were conducted to assess group differences, significance, P < .05. Results Home observations showed acceptable agreement statistics between independent coders across food and activity items. Families of obese preschoolers were significantly less likely to have fresh vegetables available or accessible in the home, were more likely to have a television in the obese child's bedroom, and had fewer physical activity devices compared with healthy weight preschoolers. Conclusions and Implications Families of young children live in home environments that were discriminatively characterized based on home observations. Future tool refinement will further clarify the impact of the home environment on early growth.