Childhood obesity treatment: targeting parents exclusively v. parents and children.

Title
Childhood obesity treatment: targeting parents exclusively v. parents and children.

Source
British Journal of Nutrition. 95, (5): 1008-1015, 2006.

There is a consensus that interventions to prevent and treat childhood obesity should involve the family; however, the extent of the child's involvement has received little attention. The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative efficacy of treating childhood obesity via a family-based health-centred intervention, targeting parents alone vs. parents and obese children together.

32 families with obese children of 6-11 yr of age were randomized into groups, in which participants were provided for 6 months a comprehensive educational and behavioural programme for a healthy lifestyle. These groups differed in their main agent of change: parents-only vs. the parents and the obese child. In both groups, parents were encouraged to foster authoritative parenting styles (parents are both firm and supportive; assume a leadership role in the environmental change with appropriate granting of child's autonomy).

The programme emphasized healthy eating patterns and encouraged an increase in daily physical activity and a decrease in sedentary behaviours. Only the intervention aimed at parents-only resulted in a significant reduction in the percentage overweight at the end of the programm as well as at the 1-yr follow-up meeting. The differences between groups at both times were significant. A greater reduction in food stimuli in the home was noted in the parents-only group. In both groups, the parents' wt. status did not change. Regression analysis shows that the level of attendance in sessions explained 28% of the variability in the children's wt. status change, the treatment group explained another 10%, and the improvement in the obesogenic load explained 11% of the variability.

These results suggest that omitting the obese child from active participation in the health-centred programme may be beneficial for wt. loss and for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among obese children.