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Children in UK with obesity, NAFLD lack exercise and proper diet

New research showed that children with obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the UK fail to meet UK recommendations for exercise and diet, indicating efforts should be made to help improve existing guidelines.
“This is the first study to assess dietary and activity patterns in a UK pediatric NAFLD population,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers from the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, including Bernadette Moore, PhD, senior lecturer in Molecular Nutrition, performed a case-control study comparing the habitual diets and behavioral patterns of 24 children with NAFLD and obesity with eight children with obesity without NAFLD enrolled at King’s College Hospital.

Bernadette Moore

Each patient participated and completed a 24-hour dietary recall, a Physical Activity Questionnaire, a Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire and 7-day food and activity journal, as well as wore a pedometer, to measure diet and behaviors over the study period.

Overall, children with obesity had greater BMI z-scores (P = .006) and centiles (P = .002) compared with children with NAFLD. However, “after adjusting for multiple hypotheses testing and controlling for differences in BMI and other factors,” macro- and micro-nutrient intakes were similar between the groups, according to results of the 7-day diet journal and 24-hour dietary recall.

The children with NAFLD displayed more restrictions with their diet (P = .005) and took a higher number of steps (P = .01) compared with the children without NAFLD.

“Our study showed that children with NAFLD exhibited more restrained eating behaviors and were more likely to engage in exercise than obese children without liver disease,” Moore said in the release. “Rather than make new recommendations for obese children with NAFLD, our findings indicate that concerted efforts should be made to help children improve their current diet and activity patterns to achieve existing population guidelines.”

Disclosures: The study was funded by the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.