Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS)

The Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) model aims to help families establish healthy routines related to eating, physical activity, sleep, and screen time. The intervention serves families with children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years who live Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. The GFHS is designed to increase fruit and vegetable intake, replace sugar-sweetened beverages with water, promote family meals, reduce screen time, encourage physical activity, and establish a bedtime routine to promote adequate sleep. Health educators deliver the intervention through four home visits that are scheduled four to six weeks apart. During visits, the health educators encourage families to set behavior change goals and help them address barriers to achieving those goals. Families also receive weekly emails and monthly gifts, such as a bedtime storybook, that are tailored to support their goals.

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The Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) model aims to prevent obesity by helping families living in Canada establish healthy routines for eating, physical activity, sleep, and screen time. The GFHS model is based on Healthy Habits, Happy Homes, a home-based obesity prevention demonstration project in the United States. The GFHS is also informed by Family Systems Theory (FST) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). FST posits that families are systems of interconnected and interdependent individuals who must be understood and considered as a system rather than as individuals. Thus, the GFHS is designed to influence household routines by using a whole-family, home-based approach. SDT posits that self-motivated behavior change is more likely than change motivated by external factors to result in lasting change. To promote families’ internal motivation to change their health behaviors, the GFHS model uses motivational interviewing (MI)—a collaborative, client-centered counseling technique designed to increase the likelihood of successful behavior change by providing families with a sense of autonomy, confidence, and support with respect to goals that families set for themselves.

The GFHS is an ongoing demonstration project that is examining a home-based obesity prevention intervention designed by researchers from the University of Guelph in Canada. 

Please contact the model developer about support available to replicate the model.

To participate in the study, families must have at least one child between the ages of 18 months and 5 years; live in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada, with no plans to move in the following year; and have at least one parent able to respond to surveys in English.

The model aims to increase fruit and vegetable intake, replace sugar-sweetened beverages with water, promote family meals, reduce screen time, encourage physical activity, and establish a bedtime routine to promote adequate sleep.

GFHS services include home visits, weekly emails with tailored information about lifestyle goals (as identified by each family), and monthly mailed gifts, such as a bedtime storybook, to support those goals.

During the initial home visit, home visitors (referred to as health educators) describe the behavioral goals of the intervention. Families then rate how satisfied they are with their current routines and behaviors from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied) using a health behavior wheel that lists each of the target health behavior goals. Health educators then ask families if they want to set any behavior change goals. If they do, health educators use MI techniques to help families identify the steps necessary to achieve their desired goals and then discuss possible challenges to reaching those goals and solutions to address them. The health educators also ask families if they would like to receive emails to check on their progress as a form of accountability. To facilitate behavior self-monitoring, the health educators provide a family routine tracker, where families can record their behaviors and factors that help or discourage changing their behaviors.

For families that set behavioral goals, health educators review and discuss the families’ progress as well as possible solutions to identified challenges during follow-up visits. In addition to home visits, families receive a series of emails and mailed gifts tailored to their goals, such as colorful plates to encourage more family meals or children’s books to encourage regular sleep routines.

If families do not set a behavior change goal during the first visit, the health educators ask them to again rate their satisfaction with their current routines and behaviors at follow-up home visits. Then the health educators ask if the families want to set any behavior change goals. Families who do not set behavior change goals receive weekly emails and mailed gifts on a standardized schedule. 

Please contact the model developer for information about the curriculum used during service delivery.

Health educators conduct four home visits with families over six months. Visits are scheduled about four to six weeks apart, based on a family’s schedule. 

Initial home visits typically last one hour. Follow-up home visits typically last 30 to 60 minutes.

Please contact the model developer for information about adaptations or enhancements to the model.

The University of Guelph oversees and supports implementation of the model. 

The health educators administer the home visits according to the study protocol. Please contact the model developer for information about the model’s fidelity guidelines.

Health educators are graduate students and registered dietitians with at least one year of counseling experience. 

Please contact the model developer for information about supervision for the health educators. 

The health educators participate in a two-day training on motivational interviewing and complete two practice sessions before conducting home visits. Please contact the model developer for information about the pre-service and ongoing professional development requirements.

Guelph Family Health Study  
University of Guelph  
Phone: +1 (519) 824-4120 ext. 53773  
Email: coordinator@guelphfamilyhealthstudy.com  
Website: https://guelphfamilyhealthstudy.com