Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jul 14:15:652.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2031-8.

Translational research: are community-based child obesity treatment programs scalable?

Louise L Hardy  1 , Seema Mihrshahi  2 , Joanne Gale  3 , Binh Nguyen  4 , Louise A Baur  5   6 , Blythe J O'Hara  7
Affiliations

Translational research: are community-based child obesity treatment programs scalable?

Louise L Hardy et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Community-based obesity treatment programs have become an important response to address child obesity; however the majority of these programs are small, efficacy trials, few are translated into real-world situations (i.e., dissemination trials). Here we report the short-term impact of a scaled-up, community-based obesity treatment program on children's weight and weight-related behaviours disseminated under real world conditions.

Methods: Children age 6-15 years with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 85th percentile with no co-morbidities, and their parents/carers participated in a twice weekly, 10-week after-school child obesity treatment program between 2009 and 2012. Outcome information included measures of weight and weight-related behaviours. Analyses were adjusted for clustering and socio-demographic variables.

Results: Overall, 2,812 children participated (54.2% girls; M(age) 10.1 (2.0) years; M(attaendance) 12.9 (5.9) sessions). Beneficial changes among all children included BMI (-0.65 kg/m(2)), BMI-z-score (-0.11), waist circumference (-1.8 cm), and WtHtr (-0.02); self-esteem (+2.7 units), physical activity (+1.2 days/week), screen time (-4.8 h/week), and unhealthy foods index (-2.4 units) (all p < 0.001). Children who completed ≥ 75% of the program were more likely to have beneficial changes in BMI, self-esteem and diet (sugar sweetened beverages, lollies/chocolate, hot chips and takeaways) compared with children completing <75% of the program.

Conclusions: This is one of the few studies to report outcomes of a government-funded, program at scale in a real-world setting, and shows that investment in a community-based child obesity treatment program holds potential to produce short-term changes in weight and weight-related behaviours. The findings support government investment in this health priority area, and demonstrate that community-based models of child obesity treatment are a promising adjunctive intervention to health service provision at all levels of care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
BMI distribution curves of completers (attended ≥75 % of sessions) at baseline and program completion (n = 1,520)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare . Australia’s Health 2014. Canberra: AIHW; 2014.
    1. Spilchak PJ, Denney-Wilson E, King L, Baur LA. Tertiary paediatric obesity services in Australia. J Paediatr Child Health. 2008;44(5):243–7. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1754.2007.01266.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wake M, Baur LA, Gerner B, Gibbons K, Gold L, Gunn J, Levickis P, McCallum Z, Naughton G, Sanci L, et al. Outcomes and costs of primary care surveillance and intervention for overweight or obese children: the LEAP 2 randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2009;339:b3308. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b3308. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oude LH, Baur L, Jansen H, Shrewsbury VA, O’Malley C, Stolk RP, Summerbell CD. Interventions for treating obesity in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009;1:CD001872. - PubMed
    1. Nutbeam D, Bauman AE. Evaluation in a nutshell: a practical guide to the evaluation of health promotion programs, vol. 2nd. North Ryde: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd; 2006.

Publication types