Effectiveness of interventions involving parents on children's eating behaviours: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Parents play a pivotal role in shaping their children's food environment and eating behaviours. Involving parents in interventions designed to promote nutritional outcomes such as dietary intake in children has been shown to improve parental feeding practices. However, it remains unclear how such interventions influence children's eating behaviour outcomes. This protocol describes the methods of a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of interventions involving parents in improving the eating behaviours of healthy children aged 0-12 years.
Electronic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science will be searched from inception to September 2025. A search strategy is developed to identify randomised controlled trials directly involving parents and reporting eating behaviours in children as either primary or secondary outcomes. Two independent reviewers will screen identified records and extract data on study, participant and intervention characteristics. Study results relevant to our primary and secondary outcomes will also be extracted using a prepiloted standardised data extraction form. We will use the Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias tool (RoB2) and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to assess risk of bias and certainty of evidence, respectively. Where possible, meta-analysis using random-effects models will be performed; otherwise a qualitative summary will be provided.
Ethics approval is not required for this study as no primary data will be collected. The findings will provide valuable insights for stakeholders to inform and optimise public health policies and practices aimed at empowering families to promote healthy eating behaviours early in childhood. The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
CRD420251076540.
Electronic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus and Web of Science will be searched from inception to September 2025. A search strategy is developed to identify randomised controlled trials directly involving parents and reporting eating behaviours in children as either primary or secondary outcomes. Two independent reviewers will screen identified records and extract data on study, participant and intervention characteristics. Study results relevant to our primary and secondary outcomes will also be extracted using a prepiloted standardised data extraction form. We will use the Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias tool (RoB2) and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to assess risk of bias and certainty of evidence, respectively. Where possible, meta-analysis using random-effects models will be performed; otherwise a qualitative summary will be provided.
Ethics approval is not required for this study as no primary data will be collected. The findings will provide valuable insights for stakeholders to inform and optimise public health policies and practices aimed at empowering families to promote healthy eating behaviours early in childhood. The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
CRD420251076540.
Authors
Khorramrouz Khorramrouz, Rae Rae, Kucab Kucab, Uleryk Uleryk, Maguire Maguire, Pechlivanoglou Pechlivanoglou, Thorpe Thorpe, Comelli Comelli, Birken Birken
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