An interventional study of Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative in Dietary Intakes, Physical Activity and Child Care, sponsored by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 2 Years to 5 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-19.
Sponsored by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
The goal of this cluster-randomized, controlled trial is to learn if a professional development program for childcare educators, called the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative, can help improve the nutritional quality of meals/snacks served and the availability of physical activity opportunities in childcare programs, and also to learn if this results in improved diet quality and physical activity for young children who attend childcare, especially in under-resourced settings. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Do childcare programs that receive professional development through the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative improve the nutritional quality of the meals they serve, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2020), and do they also provide more physical activity opportunities to young children throughout the day? Do young children (ages 2-5 years) attending childcare programs that receive the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative eat more nutritious foods/beverages (as measured by the HEI-2020) and engage in less sedentary time at childcare?
Researchers will compare a group of childcare programs who participate in the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative, and a sample of children who attend those programs, to a similar group of childcare programs who do not participate to see if the quality of meals served, the amounts of physical activity opportunities scheduled, young children's dietary quality, and the minutes/day spent in physical activity increase from before to after the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative.
Childcare educator participants will:
Child participants will:
2,646 studies on the registry are indexed under Motor Activity; 1,205 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 456 is above the median of 60 across 2,309 interventional studies indexed under Motor Activity.
Browse Motor Activity studies →Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is the lead sponsor of 154 studies on the registry; 10 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Childcare programs assigned to the intervention group will participate in the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative's professional development program from January- November 2027.
Other: Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative
Childcare programs assigned to the control group will receive no intervention during 2027 while the intervention group participates in the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative. After follow-up data collection is completed, however, this group will be offered the opportunity to participate in the Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative in 2028.
The Boston Healthy Child Care Initiative is a professional development and peer-networking program offered by the Boston Public Health Commission for ECE programs in Boston. Building on the evidence-based Go NAP SACC program, it helps ECE educators set goals and create action plans to implement policies and practices that support healthy eating and physical activity for young children. Facilitators, in English and Spanish, share practical, real-world advice and teach skills for how to boost nutrition and physical activity at childcare, and educators connect with one another to share their own tips and help each other problem-solve. BHCCI covers three areas: Nutrition in the First Five Years, Physical Activity Learning Session, and Farm-to-ECE. Programs also receive stipends to support healthy changes.
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in Healthy Eating Index (2020) score for young children's dietary intake while attending childcare.
The Healthy Eating Index (2020) measures the extent to which dietary intake aligns with standards set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2020). The index ranges from 0-100, with higher scores representing more alignment with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in minutes per day that 2-5 year old children spend in sedentary time while attending childcare
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in the percentage of time in childcare that 2-5 year old children spend in sedentary time
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in number of best practice nutrition and physical activity policies adopted at the childcare program
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in average dynamic acceleration per day among 2-5 children while attending childcare
Average dynamic acceleration is the component of acceleration measured by accelerometers that attributable to movement by correcting for acceleration due to gravity. This outcome enables comparison with other studies.
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in accelerometer-measured intensity gradient per day among 2-5 children while attending childcare
The intensity gradient incorporates information on the intensity of physical activities across the day into a single metric.
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in cup-equivalents of fruits and vegetables consumed per day at childcare among 2-5 year old children
Time frame: 12 months
Mean change from baseline to post-intervention in policies related to vegetable gardening or procuring foods from local producers at the childcare program
Farm-to-ECE supportive policies
Time frame: 12 months
Plan to share: Yes — Data on child participants' changes in dietary intake and physical activity, along with data on child care programs' policy scores, will be made available. Participants' identifying information will be removed so there is no way of tracing the identity of children or childcare programs. Data will be reviewed prior to release to ensure that confidentiality is protected.
Supporting information: Study protocol
Time frame: Free public access to the data will be available September 2030
Access criteria: The public will have access to the de-identified IPD via the Harvard Dataverse
Data sharing details ↗ · dataverse.harvard.edu
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Oct 2026; primary completion for Jun 2028, 20 months later.
Of 1,726 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Motor Activity, half reached primary completion within 23 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 47. This study's planned 20 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 1,738 studies reached it within 23 months; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 47.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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