Improving the Metabolic and Mental Health of Children with Obesity: A School-Based Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Intervention in Wuhan, China

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition education and physical activity intervention on cardiovascular risk profile and mental health outcomes among Chinese children with obesity. Two primary schools were randomly allocated to the control group (CG) and the intervention group (IG). We selected children with obesity from 1340 students in the third and fourth grades as participants. The IG received 8 months of nutrition education and physical activity intervention, while the CG was waitlisted. A generalized estimating equation model was applied to assess repeated variables over time. A total of 171 children with obesity (99 IG and 72 CG) aged 9.8 ± 0.7 years completed the post-intervention stage. Compared with baseline, significant reductions were observed within the IG for depression and fasting plasma glucose at post-intervention. After adjusting for confounders, group and time interaction effects showed that the IG achieved improvements in the risk of poor well-being (p = 0.051) and social anxiety (p = 0.029), had decreased diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.020) and fasting plasma glucose (p < 0.001), and had significantly increased high-density lipoprotein (p < 0.001) from baseline to post-intervention relative to the CG. The effects of school-based nutrition education and physical activity intervention on children with obesity are diverse, including not only the improvement of metabolic health but also mental health promotion.

Physical Activity as a Treatment for Social Anxiety in Clinical and Non-clinical Populations: A Systematic Review and Three Meta-Analyses for Different Study Designs

“…With the new, less strict eligibility criteria, n = 28 studies were found, which met the inclusion criteria, from which n = 12 were included in the meta-analysis (Figure 1B). Two of these were RCTs, which were also included in part 1 (Jazaieri et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2020). The other two RCTs (Hartmann et al, 2010;Lokös et al, 2013) could not be included because the relevant data were not reported.…”

“…Furthermore, the control interventions were not comparable between the studies (CBT, MBSR, no treatment, usual practice with no intervention). Only one RCT (Yu et al, 2020) reported a power analysis, and therefore, we cannot decide if the sample sizes were overall large enough to be able to detect a difference in the main outcome of the effect of PA on SAD between the different groups.…”

“…Age ranged from 9 to 32 years. Data from children in three studies (Hartmann et al, 2010;Lokös et al, 2013;Yu et al, 2020) and from young adults in one study (Jazaieri et al, 2012) were reported; 46.3% of the population in the studies were female (range from 20.5 to 54%).…”

“…In Yu et al (2020), an 8-month school-based nutrition education and physical activity program was conducted. Parents were invited to participate in health education curriculums and doing exercises at home together with their children.…”

“…No study was found that was rated as high quality (i.e., good ROB). One reason for these ratings was that a power analysis was reported in one study only (Yu et al, 2020).…”