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Treatment of pediatric obesity with guided self-help shows promise
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Guided self-help treatment programs for pediatric obesity may help decrease children’s BMI, new research suggests.
The study included 50 overweight or obese children aged 8 to 12 years who were assigned to immediate treatment or delayed treatment. Participants were part of a guided self-help treatment of pediatric obesity for 12 visits during 5 months.
Participants assigned to immediate treatment started the guided self-help treatment after the baseline (T1), attended post-treatment (T2) and 6-month post-treatment (T3) assessments. Participants assigned to delayed treatment attended baseline treatment (T1), attended another assessment after 5 months (T2), attended post-treatment assessments at the completion of the self-help (T3) and a 6-month post-treatment assessment (T4).
Of the immediate treatment group, 64% were obese at baseline and 68% of participants in the delayed treatment group were obese.
Researchers found that children in the immediate treatment group decreased their BMI significantly more than the delayed treatment group (P<.001). They also found similar results for BMI z score and percentage overweight.
At the 6-month mark, changes were maintained for BMI zscore (P<.001) and percentage overweight (P<.05) but not BMI.
“Importantly, the initial results of this study showed that a self-help program, guided by professionals, may be as effective in helping kids to lose weight as a traditional, clinic-based weight loss program,” Kerri Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, said in a press release.
Disclosure: One researcher reports receiving research grants from Alkermes, Novartis and Shire.
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