Researchers Examine Weight Loss Programs for Pre Teens

By Regina Sass

Obesity among pre teens is getting to be a national epidemic. The number of overweight children in the U.S. has tripled in the past few decades and the health care cost has nearly quadrupled. And researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, have taken a look at different intervention programs designed to help the children get the weight off and keep it off as well.

They found that children who participated in a type of program that focused on behavioral skills or social skills were able to keep the weight off more effectively, but the effectiveness decreased over time.

The researchers examined the effects of two interventions. These were done after the usual family based behavioral weight loss treatment. One was a behavioral skills maintenance program, BSM and the other one was a social facilitation maintenance intervention, SFM and there was another group that did not get any intervention.

The BSM program is based on the idea that specific plans are needed in order to maintain weight loss. It puts the emphasize on self regulation and relapse prevention strategies. The SFM method, on the other hand, is based on the idea that the child will relapse because of the absence of a social environment. In this program they also address peer factors like teasing and self perception - body image- as being barriers to the child's physical activity.

The initial part of the study was done between October 1999 and July 2004 and the children were followed up at the one year and two year marks. The participants were 204 healthy children, 7 to 12 years old. All of them were 20 to 100% above the midpoint body mass index for age and sex and had at least one parent who was overweight. The children were enrolled for five months of weight loss treatment and 150 of them were randomly put into one of three groups, either the control group that received no intervention or the BSM ro SFM group.

The results showed that the children who were in either the BSM or the SFM groups maintained relative weight much better that those who were in the control group from the start of the program to the post weight maintenance phase. There was a decline in the effectiveness in relation to the control group during the followup period but the effect of SFM alone as well as when analyzed along with BSM were much better than the control group

The lead researcher is Denise E. Wilfley, Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

Source: Washington University http://www.newswise.com/

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