Combined Home and School Obesity Prevention Interventions for Children

Abstract

This review identifies studies describing interventions delivered across both the home and school/community setting, which target obesity and weight-related nutrition and physical activity behaviors in children. Fifteen studies, published between 1998 and 2010, were included and evaluated for effectiveness, study quality, nutrition/activity content, behavior change techniques, and theoretical basis, using validated assessment tools/taxonomies. Seven studies were rated as effective. Behavior change techniques used to engage families, and techniques associated with intervention effectiveness were coded. Effective studies used about 10 behavior change techniques, compared with 6.5 in ineffective studies. Effective interventions used techniques including providing general information on behavior-health links, prompting practice of behavior, and planning for social support/social changes. Different behavior change techniques were applied in the home and school setting. The findings of this review provide novel insights into the techniques associated with intervention effectiveness that can inform the development of public health obesity prevention strategies.

What Works in Community-Based Interventions Promoting Physical Activity and Healthy Eating? A Review of Reviews

“…Seven reviews (five narrative reviews [24,25,26,27,28] and two meta-analyses [29,30]) investigated the effects of community-based interventions to promote healthy eating and physical activity among children and adolescents. Most of the underlying studies focused on children aged 8 to 12 years.…”

“…Two meta-analyses and two narrative systematic reviews investigated the effects of healthy eating and PA interventions on weight change. Four of the reviews [25,27,28,29] provided only limited evidence due to a small number of included community-based studies, small sample sizes in the underlying studies, and very few multi-level or environmental change interventions. Underlying studies included in the remaining three reviews [24,26,30] included more of the latter interventions and provided moderate evidence (Table 1).…”

Maternal educational level and children’s healthy eating behaviour: role of the home food environment (cross-sectional results from the INPACT study)

“…In the latter case, children receive the messages in more than one setting (e.g. at home, school, and the sports club) thereby increasing the chance that such an intervention will be more effective than a single-setting approach [43]. However, interventions aiming to improve children’s dietary behaviour, such as children’s fruit and vegetable consumption are also necessary for children from higher socio-economic backgrounds since the majority of all children (including children of higher educational background) does not consume the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables.…”

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Beliefs of Lebanese and Palestinian School Children in Lebanon

“…Interventions that target parents and the family home can be effective. The effectiveness of these interventions is influenced by the degree to which parents are involved in the intervention as well as the behavior change strategies employed (Hendrie et al, 2012). Activities to ensure that food is cooked in a healthy way with low fats and salts for example are needed.…”

“…This means that they prefer to eat unhealthy food over healthy one. Establishing and maintaining healthy behaviors during adolescence is needed as it is easier and more effective than trying to change unhealthy behaviors during adulthood (Hendrie et al, 2012). The nutrition health lessons in textbooks and the teaching practices need to emphasize on the personal perception of risk and harmfulness of engaging in specific health-risk behavior.…”