Interventions for preventing obesity in children

Abstract

Background Obesity prevention is an international public health priority. The prevalence of obesity and overweight is increasing in child populations throughout the world, impacting on short and long-term health. Obesity prevention strategies for children can change behaviour but efficacy in terms of preventing obesity remains poorly understood. Objectives To assess the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent obesity in childhood through diet, physical activity and/or lifestyle and social support. Search strategy MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL and CENTRAL were searched from 1990 to February 2005. Non-English language papers were included and experts contacted. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials and controlled clinical trials with minimum duration twelve weeks. Data collection and analysis Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed study quality. Main results Twenty-two studies were included; ten long-term (at least 12 months) and twelve short-term (12 weeks to 12 months). Nineteen were school/preschool-based interventions, one was a community-based intervention targeting low-income families, and two were familybased interventions targeting non-obese children of obese or overweight parents. Six of the ten long-term studies combined dietary education and physical activity interventions; five resulted in no difference in overweight status between groups and one resulted in improvements for girls receiving the intervention, but not boys. Two studies Interventions for preventing obesity in children (Review)

Strategies for the prevention and control of obesity in the school setting: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…60 Another systematic review examining interventions for childhood obesity prevention also reported that the majority of studies reviewed did not have a significant impact. 22 These results suggest that the demonstration of weight loss among overweight children may be more easily attainable than the demonstration of the prevention of weight gain. As noted above, this review combined intervention and prevention studies, as the strategies used are substantially the same in both cases.…”

“…[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] With the exception of one recent review 20 and an earlier review conducted by our team in collaboration with the Community Guide Branch of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 25 this work is unique in that it focuses specifically on studies undertaken in schools. Previous reviews have focused solely on the prevention of obesity 22 or weight loss interventions among already overweight children. 23 Recognizing that the strategies to prevent unnecessary weight gain and to treat obesity in children overlap considerably, this review includes studies with both aims.…”

Four-year follow-up of children and adolescents participating in an obesity intervention program

“…9,10 The achieved weight loss and its maintenance were more pronounced and most importantly sustained as compared to previous studies. [11][12][13][14] Apart from differences in age, race and degree of overweight, this finding can probably be explained Four-year follow-up after intervention T Reinehr et al in part by proving the motivation at the beginning of the intervention using criteria, which have been reported to be predictive for success. 4 Furthermore, the combination of individual care and group sessions, the intensive education of parents and the graduated structure of the intervention might be factors leading to long-term success.…”

Childhood obesity prevention studies: lessons learned and to be learned

“…Finally, given the paucity of studies where the intervention and/or follow-up phases lasted for a minimum of 1 year, shorter term studies have also been included in many reviews, e.g. Summerbell et al 24 and Doak et al 30 In contrast to the earlier reviews in which methodological rigour was the main yardstick by which intervention studies were appraised, more recent reviews have intentionally been more inclusive and diverse in their appraisal process in order to identify elements of best practice for the prevention of obesity at the population level 24,30,31 . Without doubt, the most comprehensive and inclusive synthesis of the literature to date has been the one carried out by Flynn et al 31 in which 500 reports were evaluated not only for their methodological rigour, but also for programme development/evaluation and the degree to which they encompassed the principles of population health and immigrant health.…”