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

ObjectiveTo develop and test a home food and activity instrument to discriminate between the home environments of obese and healthy weight preschool children.DesignA modified questionnaire about home environments was tested as an observation tool.SettingFamily homes.ParticipantsA total of 35 obese children with at least 1 obese caregiver were compared with 47 healthy weight children with no obese caregivers.Main Outcome MeasuresHome observation assessments were conducted to evaluate the availability of devices supporting activity behaviors and foods based on availability, accessibility, and readiness to be eaten.AnalysisAgreement statistics were conducted to analyze psychometrics and MANOVAs were conducted to assess group differences, significance, P < .05.ResultsHome 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 ImplicationsFamilies 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.