Quality of Life in Mexican‐American Children Following a Weight Management Program

Abstract

FOREYT. Quality of life in Mexican-American children following a weight management program. Obesity. 2007;15:2553-2556. Objective: The objective was to evaluate quality of life (QOL) in at-risk-for-overweight and overweight MexicanAmerican children after participating in 6 months of intensive weight management or self-help. Research Methods and Procedures: Eighty sixth-and seventh-grade at-risk-for-overweight (BMI Ն85th to Ͻ95th percentile) and overweight (BMI Ն95th percentile) Mexican-American children were randomly assigned to either intensive instructor-led intervention (ILI) or self-help (SH). The ILI condition included daily participation for 12 weeks in a school-based program comprised of nutrition education, physical activity, and behavior modification, followed by ongoing monthly maintenance. QOL was assessed at baseline and 6 months via child self-report PedsQL. QOL outcomes were compared across treatment groups, and the impact of change in zBMI on change in QOL was evaluated. Results: Children in the ILI condition not only achieved significantly greater weight loss (zBMI, Ϫ0.13 Ϯ 0.14; p Ͻ 0.001) but also significantly greater physical QOL improvements than those in the SH condition at 6 months (p Ͻ 0.05). Furthermore, physical QOL increases were associated with zBMI reduction (p Ͻ 0.05). However, neither psychosocial nor total QOL was significantly impacted by intervention or zBMI change. Discussion: These findings show that even modest decreases in zBMI after weight management result in improved physical QOL in Mexican-American children. These results illustrate the clear need to include evaluation of QOL in the process of identifying effective weight management programs.

Health-related quality of life in obese children and adolescents

“…15 These studies documented significant improvements in HRQOL with weight loss, but pooling data to examine a possible quantitative relationship for the purposes of the present review was not possible as these studies assessed changes in weight status differently (see Table 2) and few utilized common tools to assess HRQOL. 21,35 Fullerton et al 21 found that improvements in BMI z-scores explained significant changes in physical functioning (b ¼ À0.22, Po0.005), but not psychosocial functioning after a 12-week behavioral therapy intervention (Table 2). Knopfli et al 36 reported improvements in all subsets of HRQOL in severely obese adolescents with a median BMI reduction of 5 kgm -2 after an 8-week inpatient program.…”

“…6,14,[17][18][19][20] Six studies utilized weight loss interventions (Table 2), of which two were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). 21,22 One paper reported two studies (cross-sectional and intervention) and was therefore included in both the tables. 15 Fifteen studies utilizing the PedsQL were included in the pooled analyses.…”

“…These include two RCTs, 21,22 one validation study, 15 one non-randomized controlled trial 33 and three uncontrolled clinical trials. [34][35][36] Without exception these studies examined the effects in adolescent participants.…”

“…[34][35][36] Without exception these studies examined the effects in adolescent participants. They tested a range of weight loss treatments, including laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery, 35 combined pharmacotherapy (sibutramine), diet and exercise, 22,36 behavioral or cognitive-behavioral therapy 21,33,36 and weight loss camps. 15 These studies documented significant improvements in HRQOL with weight loss, but pooling data to examine a possible quantitative relationship for the purposes of the present review was not possible as these studies assessed changes in weight status differently (see Table 2) and few utilized common tools to assess HRQOL.…”

Qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde de crianças obesas

“…Porém, é possível que programas de redução de peso melhorem a qualidade de vida dessas crianças, especialmente no domínio físico 27 .…”