To assess the effects of reducing television viewing and computer use on children's body mass index (BMI) as a risk factor for the development of overweight in young children.Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial.Setting: University children's hospital.Participants: Seventy children aged 4 to 7 years whose BMI was at or above the 75th BMI percentile for age and sex.Interventions: Children were randomized to an intervention to reduce their television viewing and computer use by 50% vs a monitoring control group that did not reduce television viewing or computer use.Main Outcome Measures: Age-and sex-standardized BMI (zBMI), television viewing, energy intake, and physical activity were monitored every 6 months during 2 years.Results: Children randomized to the intervention group showed greater reductions in targeted sedentary behavior (PϽ.001), zBMI (PϽ.05), and energy intake (PϽ.05) compared with the monitoring control group. Socioeconomic status moderated zBMI change (P =.01), with the experimental intervention working better among families of low socioeconomic status. Changes in targeted sedentary behavior mediated changes in zBMI (PϽ.05). The change in television viewing was related to the change in energy intake (PϽ.001) but not to the change in physical activity (P =.37).
Conclusions:Reducing television viewing and computer use may have an important role in preventing obesity and in lowering BMI in young children, and these changes may be related more to changes in energy intake than to changes in physical activity.
The efficacy of the family-based behavioral approach to treating pediatric obesity replicates over a 25-year period. Challenges in evaluating treatment effects over time are discussed. Ideas for studying choice of treatments that vary in effect size and for strengthening family-based behavioral treatments are noted.
Increasing fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing fat and sugar intake in families at risk for childhood obesity. Obes Res. 2001;9:171-178. Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of a parent-focused behavioral intervention on parent and child eating changes and on percentage of overweight changes in families that contain at least one obese parent and a non-obese child. Research Methods and Procedures: Families with obese parents and non-obese children were randomized to groups in which parents were provided a comprehensive behavioral weight-control program and were encouraged to increase fruit and vegetable intake or decrease intake of high-fat/high-sugar foods. Child materials targeted the same dietary changes as their parents without caloric restriction. Results: Changes over 1 year showed that treatment influenced targeted parent and child fruit and vegetable intake and high-fat/high-sugar intake, with the Increase Fruit and Vegetable group also decreasing their consumption of high-fat/high-sugar foods. Parents in the increased fruit and vegetable group showed significantly greater decreases in percentage of overweight than parents in the decreased high-fat/high-sugar group. Discussion: These results suggest that focusing on increasing intake of healthy foods may be a useful approach for nutritional change in obese parents and their children.
Background and Purpose-Hemodynamic insult by bilateral common carotid artery ligation has been shown to induce aneurysmal remodeling at the basilar terminus in a rabbit model. To characterize critical hemodynamics that initiate this remodeling, we applied a novel hemodynamics-histology comapping technique. Methods-Eight rabbits received bilateral common carotid artery ligation to increase basilar artery flow. Three underwent sham operations. Hemodynamic insult at the basilar terminus was assessed by computational fluid dynamics. Bifurcation tissue was harvested on day 5; histology was comapped with initial postligation hemodynamic fields of wall shear stress (WSS) and WSS gradient. Results-All bifurcations showed internal elastic lamina loss in periapical regions exposed to accelerating flow with high WSS and positive WSS gradient. Internal elastic lamina damage happened 100% of the time at locations where WSS was Ͼ122 Pa and WSS gradient was Ͼ530 Pa/mm. The degree of destructive remodeling accounting for internal elastic lamina loss, medial thinning, and luminal bulging correlated with the magnitude of the hemodynamic insult.
Conclusions-Aneurysmal
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.