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Lifestyle intervention shows long-term benefits in children with overweight
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German children with overweight who participated in a comprehensive lifestyle intervention program for 6 months saw a sustained reduction in BMI over 7 years when compared with a control group, according to study findings published in Clinical Nutrition.
“Lifestyle intervention involving the family works to reduce overweight in children when a multi-professional team performs the intervention based on the combination of behavior treatment, nutrition courses and exercise treatment,” Thomas Reinehr, MD, PhD, head of pediatric endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition medicine at Vestische Hospital for Children and Adolescents in Datteln, Germany, told Endocrine Today.
Reinehr and colleagues analyzed data from 32 children with overweight recruited in 2007 and 2008 to participate in either a pilot study or a randomized controlled trial involving a lifestyle intervention in Germany (mean baseline age, 12 years; 65.5% girls; mean baseline BMI, 24.1 kg/m²; mean BMI standard deviation of samples [SDS)], 1.73). The intervention, known as “Obeldicks light,” was based on physical activity training, nutrition education, and behavior counseling with an interdisciplinary team of pediatricians, dieticians, psychologists and exercise physiologists. Interventions were performed in group sessions and individual counseling sessions for the children and their families. Height and body weight were measured at baseline, 6 months and 18 months, and again at 7 years (mean time between baseline and follow-up measurement, 7.6 years).
Researchers compared changes in BMI SDS from baseline to 7 years (July to December 2015) with changes in BMI SDS in children with overweight from a national, population-based cohort in Germany (n = 76; mean baseline age, 12 years; 68.4% girls; mean baseline BMI, 23.1 kg/m²; mean BMI SDS, 1.55), who served as a control group. Height and body weight for controls were measured at baseline and after a mean of 6.2 years.
Researchers found that children in the intervention group reduced their BMS SDS by a mean of –0.28 between baseline and 6 months and that the degree of weight loss remained stable at both 18 months and 7 years (P = .005).
At the end of follow-up, 15 participants in the intervention group and 32 controls had normal weight (46.8% vs. 42.1%), and more children in the intervention group reduced their BMI SDS between baseline and follow-up (65.6% vs. 48.7%), with 53.1% of children in the intervention group reducing their BMI SDS by more than –0.25, according to researchers. The reduction in BMI SDS between baseline and 7 years was greater among children in the intervention group (median, –0.26) than controls (mean, –0.05).
“The 6-month lifestyle intervention ... was associated with a reduction in overweight in the study participants not only at the end of intervention, but also after a 7-year follow-up period after the end of intervention, resulting in the finding that almost half of the reevaluated adolescents were normal weight at follow-up,” the researchers wrote. The findings, they noted, support the hypothesis that a lifestyle intervention is effective to reduce overweight specifically in the long term. – by Regina Schaffer
For more information:
Thomas Reinehr, MD, PhD, can be reached at Vestische Hospital for Children and Adolescents Datteln, Dr. F. Steiner Str. 5, D-45711, Datteln, Germany; email: t.reinehr@kinderklinik-datteln.de.
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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