Date of Award

January 2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

Stephanie Samuels

Second Advisor

Mona Sharifi

Abstract

Introduction: The Virtual Bright Bodies Program is a telehealth adaptation of Yale's evidence-based family-based intensive lifestyle intervention targeting pediatric obesity, delivered through video conferencing during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. This retrospective cross-sectional study evaluated caregiver experiences with the telehealth-adapted program among 25 caregivers of children aged 7-16 years who completed a post-program survey.

Method: Caregiver perceptions were assessed using the adapted Telehealth Satisfaction Questionnaire (TSQ, 13 items), the adapted Telemedicine Satisfaction and Usefulness Questionnaire (TSUQ, 4 items), and the Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM, 4 items). Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, followed by exploratory subgroup analyses examined whether acceptability differed by caregiver education, child age, and participation mode.

Results: Overall, caregivers reported favorable perceptions of the virtual program. Mean domain-level scores were high across satisfaction (TSQ mean = 53.48 out of 65), usability (TSUQ mean = 16.28 out of 20), and acceptability (AIM mean = 16.32 out of 20). The highest-rated items reflected time savings ( = 4.40), convenience of virtual delivery (M = 4.32), and ease of communication with providers (M = 4.28), while the item addressing the absence of physical contact received the lowest mean rating in the table (M = 3.68) and the highest variability (SD = 1.35).

Conclusion: Exploratory analyses did not identify statistically significant differences in acceptability by caregiver education, child age, or participation mode, though findings were limited by the small sample size. Although non-significant results should be interpreted with caution given the limited sample size, the consistency of acceptability ratings across caregiver education levels, child ages, and participation modes suggests that telehealth delivery may be broadly viable across diverse families enrolled in pediatric intensive lifestyle programming.

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This is an Open Access Thesis.

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