Effectiveness of short-term, community- and school-based strategies aimed at tackling childhood obesity

Year 2012, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 2 - 8, 29.02.2012

T. Alan M. Brown Lesley Fowler Ruth Camphell David Shennan

Abstract

The prevalence of children in Scotland who are overweight/obese has reached alarming proportions. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of two short-term (6-10 weeks) programmes aimed at reducing childhood obesity. One of the programmes was delivered within a community setting whilst the other was school-based. For comparison, we examined the effect of the well established MEND programme. All of the initiatives consisted of a mixture of physical activity and nutrition education and involved varying degrees of parental participation. The programmes also varied in their intensity and duration. The primary outcome measure was a change in BMI/BMI-SDS (BMI-standard deviation score). All three programmes were successful in reducing BMI-standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) albeit with varying degrees of success (range 0.065-0.18) . It is apparent that the reduction in BMI-SDS was dependent upon the number of weekly sessions and the duration of the programme. The community based programmes had a greater effect on the primary outcome than the school-based initiative. The reduction in BMI-SDS was still evident 6 months after the completion of the community-based programmes. The effectiveness of a programme to reduce BMI/BMI-SDS depended on the frequency and intensity of the sessions. The results could help inform the development of longer-term community- and school-based strategies aimed at reducing paediatric adiposity.

Keywords

-

References

• Scottish Health Survey (2010) Chapter 8, Volume 1.www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/2315422 3/87
• Whitaker RC, Wright JA, Pepe MS, Seidel KD, Dietz WH. Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity. N Engl J Med 1997; 337: 1728-1732.
• Thompson D & Wolf AM. The medical-care cost burden of obesity. Obes Rev 2001; 2: 189-197.
• Franks PW, Hanson RL, Knowler WC, Sievers ML, Bennett PH, Looker HC. Childhood obesity, other cardiovascular risk factors and premature death. N Engl J Med 2010; 362: 485-493.
• Lobstein T, Baur, Uauy R. Obesity in children and young people: a crisis in public health. Obes Rev 2004; 5: 4-85.
• Oude Luttikhuis H, Baur L, Jansen H, et al. Interventions for treating obesity in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009;1: CD001872.
• Sacher PM, Chadwick P, Wells JCK, Williams JE, Cole TJ, Lawson MS. Assessing the acceptability and feasibility of the MEND Programme in a small group of obese 7-11 year old children. J Hum Nutr Diet 2005; 18: 3-5.
• Sacher PM, Kolotourou M, Chadwick PM, et al. Randomized controlled trial of the MEND program: a family-based community intervention for childhood obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2010; 18: S62-S68.
• Cole TJ, Faith MS, Pietrobelli, Heo M. What is the best measure of adiposity change in growing children: BMI, BMI%, BMI z-score or BMI centile? Eur J Clin Nutr 2005; 59: 419-425.
• Hunt LP, Ford A, Sabin MA, Crowne EC, Shield JPH. Clinical measures of adiposity and percentage fat loss: which measure most accurately reflects fat loss and what should we aim for? Arch Dis Child 2007; 92: 399-403.
• Cole TJ, Bellizzi MC, Flegal KM, Dietz WH. Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey. BMJ 2000; 329: 1-6.
• Cole TJ. Growth monitoring with the British 1990 growth reference. Arch Dis Child 1997; 76: 47-49.
• Tan-Ting AM & Llido L. Outcome of a hospital based multidisciplinary weight loss program in obese Filipino children. Nutrition 2011; 27: 50-54.
• Ford AL, Hunt LP Cooper A, Shield JPH. What reduction in BMI SDS is required in obese adolescents to improve body composition and cardiometabolic health? Arch Dis Child 2010; 95: 256-261.
• Kinra S, Nelder RP, Lewendon GJ. Deprivation and childhood obesity: a cross sectional study of 20,973 children in Plymouth, United Kingdom. J Epidemiol Community Health 2000; 54: 456-460.
• Johnston CA, Tyler C, Fullerton G, et al. Results of an intensive school-based weight loss program with overweight Mexican American children. Int J Pediatr Obes 2007; 2: 144-152
• Aeberli I, Ammann RS, Knabenhans M, Molinari L, Zimmermann MB. Decrease in the prevalence of paediatric adiposity in Switzerland from 2002 to 2007. Public Health Nutr 2010; 13: 806-811.