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Controlled Clinical Trial
. 2016 Jan;101(1):33-41.
doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2015-308673. Epub 2015 Sep 29.

Effectiveness of a 5-year school-based intervention programme to reduce adiposity and improve fitness and lifestyle in Indian children; the SYM-KEM study

Sheila Bhave  1 , Anand Pandit  1 , Rajiv Yeravdekar  2 , Vaishali Madkaikar  1 , Trushna Chinchwade  1 , Nasreen Shaikh  3 , Tasneem Shaikh  4 , Shraddha Naik  5 , Ella Marley-Zagar  6 , Caroline H D Fall  6
Affiliations
Controlled Clinical Trial

Effectiveness of a 5-year school-based intervention programme to reduce adiposity and improve fitness and lifestyle in Indian children; the SYM-KEM study

Sheila Bhave et al. Arch Dis Child. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Design: Non-randomised non-blinded school-based intervention study.

Setting: Two schools in the cities of Pune and Nasik, India.

Participants: The intervention group comprised children attending a Pune school from 7-10 years until 12-15 years of age. Two control groups comprised children of the same age attending a similar school in Nasik, and children in the Pune intervention school but aged 12-15 years at the start of the study.

Intervention: A 5-year multi-intervention programme, covering three domains: physical activity, diet and general health, and including increased extracurricular and intracurricular physical activity sessions; daily yoga-based breathing exercises; making physical activity a 'scoring' subject; nutrition education; healthier school meals; removal of fast-food hawkers from the school environs; and health and nutrition education for teachers, pupils and families.

Main outcome measures: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, physical fitness according to simple tests of strength, flexibility and endurance; diet; and lifestyle indicators (time watching TV, studying and actively playing).

Results: After 5 years the intervention children were fitter than controls in running, long jump, sit-up and push-up tests (p<0.05 for all). They reported spending less time sedentary (watching TV and studying), more time actively playing and eating fruit more often (p<0.05). The intervention did not reduce BMI or the prevalence of overweight/obesity, but waist circumference was lower than in the Pune controls (p=0.004).

Conclusions: It was possible to achieve multiple health-promoting changes in an academically competitive Indian school. These changes resulted in improved physical fitness, but had no impact on the children's BMI or on the prevalence of overweight/obesity.

Keywords: Obesity; Outcomes research; School Health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Participant flow in the study
Figure 2
Figure 2. Mean BMI (95% CI) Z-score and percentage overweight/obese in the Pune intervention group and Nasik control group at the start of the study in 2006, mid-study (2008) and at the end of the study in 2011
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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