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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2013 Jun 10:346:f3092.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.f3092.

Shared care obesity management in 3-10 year old children: 12 month outcomes of HopSCOTCH randomised trial

Melissa Wake  1 , Kate Lycett, Susan A Clifford, Matthew A Sabin, Jane Gunn, Kay Gibbons, Cathy Hutton, Zoë McCallum, Sarah J Arnup, Gary Wittert
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Shared care obesity management in 3-10 year old children: 12 month outcomes of HopSCOTCH randomised trial

Melissa Wake et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether general practice surveillance for childhood obesity, followed by obesity management across primary and tertiary care settings using a shared care model, improves body mass index and related outcomes in obese children aged 3-10 years.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Setting: 22 family practices (35 participating general practitioners) and a tertiary weight management service (three paediatricians, two dietitians) in Melbourne, Australia.

Participants: Children aged 3-10 years with body mass index above the 95th centile recruited through their general practice between July 2009 and April 2010.

Intervention: Children were randomly allocated to one tertiary appointment followed by up to 11 general practice consultations over one year, supported by shared care, web based software (intervention) or "usual care" (control). Researchers collecting outcome measurements, but not participants, were blinded to group assignment.

Main outcome measures: Children's body mass index z score (primary outcome), body fat percentage, waist circumference, physical activity, quality of diet, health related quality of life, self esteem, and body dissatisfaction and parents' body mass index (all 15 months post-enrolment).

Results: 118 (60 intervention, 56 control) children were recruited and 107 (91%) were retained and analysed (56 intervention, 51 control). All retained intervention children attended the tertiary appointment and their general practitioner for at least one (mean 3.5 (SD 2.5, range 1-11)) weight management consultation. At outcome, children in the two trial arms had similar body mass index (adjusted mean difference -0.1 (95% confidence interval -0.7 to 0.5; P=0.7)) and body mass index z score (-0.05 (-0.14 to 0.03); P=0.2). Similarly, no evidence was found of benefit or harm on any secondary outcome. Outcomes varied widely in the combined cohort (mean change in body mass index z score -0.20 (SD 0.25, range -0.97-0.47); 26% of children resolved from obese to overweight and 2% to normal weight.

Conclusions: Although feasible, not harmful, and highly rated by both families and general practitioners, the shared care model of primary and tertiary care management did not lead to better body mass index or other outcomes for the intervention group compared with the control group. Improvements in body mass index in both groups highlight the value of untreated controls when determining efficacy.

Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12608000055303.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: MW, KL, MAS, JG, KG, CH, ZM, SC, and GW have support from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for the submitted work; no relationships with any companies that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no non-financial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work.

Figures

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Fig 1 Pictorial diagram of HopSCOTCH survey and randomised trial. GP=general practitioner
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Fig 2 Participant flow chart for HopSCOTCH survey and randomised trial
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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