Development of a Workplace Intervention for Child Care Staff: Caring and Reaching for Health’s (CARE) Healthy Lifestyles Intervention

Abstract

Child care staff are among the lowest wage workers, a group at increased risk for a wide array of chronic diseases. To date, the health of child care staff has been largely ignored, and there have been very few interventions designed for child care staff. This article describes the development of the Caring and Reaching for Health (CARE) Healthy Lifestyles intervention, a workplace intervention aimed at improving physical activity and health behaviors among child care staff. Theory and evidence-based behavior change techniques informed the development of intervention components with targets at multiple social ecological levels. Final intervention components included an educational workshop held at a kick-off event, followed by three 8-week campaigns. Intervention components within each campaign included (1) an informational magazine, (2) goal setting and weekly behavior self-monitoring, (3) weekly tailored feedback, (4) e-mail/text prompts, (5) center-level displays that encouraged team-based goals and activities, and (6) coaching for center directors. This multilevel, theory-driven intervention is currently being evaluated as part of a larger randomized controlled trial. Process evaluation efforts will assess the extent to which child care staff participated in, engaged with, and were satisfied with the intervention. Lessons learned will guide future intervention research engaging child care workers.