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
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2018 Feb 7:360:k211.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.k211.

Effectiveness of a childhood obesity prevention programme delivered through schools, targeting 6 and 7 year olds: cluster randomised controlled trial (WAVES study)

Peymane Adab  1 , Miranda J Pallan  2 , Emma R Lancashire  2 , Karla Hemming  2 , Emma Frew  2 , Tim Barrett  3 , Raj Bhopal  4 , Janet E Cade  5 , Alastair Canaway  6 , Joanne L Clarke  2 , Amanda Daley  2 , Jonathan J Deeks  2 , Joan L Duda  7 , Ulf Ekelund  8   9 , Paramjit Gill  2 , Tania Griffin  2 , Eleanor McGee  10 , Kiya Hurley  2 , James Martin  2 , Jayne Parry  2 , Sandra Passmore  11 , K K Cheng  2
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effectiveness of a childhood obesity prevention programme delivered through schools, targeting 6 and 7 year olds: cluster randomised controlled trial (WAVES study)

Peymane Adab et al. BMJ. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a school and family based healthy lifestyle programme (WAVES intervention) compared with usual practice, in preventing childhood obesity.

Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting: UK primary schools from the West Midlands.

Participants: 200 schools were randomly selected from all state run primary schools within 35 miles of the study centre (n=980), oversampling those with high minority ethnic populations. These schools were randomly ordered and sequentially invited to participate. 144 eligible schools were approached to achieve the target recruitment of 54 schools. After baseline measurements 1467 year 1 pupils aged 5 and 6 years (control: 28 schools, 778 pupils) were randomised, using a blocked balancing algorithm. 53 schools remained in the trial and data on 1287 (87.7%) and 1169 (79.7%) pupils were available at first follow-up (15 month) and second follow-up (30 month), respectively.

Interventions: The 12 month intervention encouraged healthy eating and physical activity, including a daily additional 30 minute school time physical activity opportunity, a six week interactive skill based programme in conjunction with Aston Villa football club, signposting of local family physical activity opportunities through mail-outs every six months, and termly school led family workshops on healthy cooking skills.

Main outcome measures: The protocol defined primary outcomes, assessed blind to allocation, were between arm difference in body mass index (BMI) z score at 15 and 30 months. Secondary outcomes were further anthropometric, dietary, physical activity, and psychological measurements, and difference in BMI z score at 39 months in a subset.

Results: Data for primary outcome analyses were: baseline, 54 schools: 1392 pupils (732 controls); first follow-up (15 months post-baseline), 53 schools: 1249 pupils (675 controls); second follow-up (30 months post-baseline), 53 schools: 1145 pupils (621 controls). The mean BMI z score was non-significantly lower in the intervention arm compared with the control arm at 15 months (mean difference -0.075 (95% confidence interval -0.183 to 0.033, P=0.18) in the baseline adjusted models. At 30 months the mean difference was -0.027 (-0.137 to 0.083, P=0.63). There was no statistically significant difference between groups for other anthropometric, dietary, physical activity, or psychological measurements (including assessment of harm).

Conclusions: The primary analyses suggest that this experiential focused intervention had no statistically significant effect on BMI z score or on preventing childhood obesity. Schools are unlikely to impact on the childhood obesity epidemic by incorporating such interventions without wider support across multiple sectors and environments.

Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN97000586.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Flow of school recruitment and trial arm allocation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. World Health Organization. Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Geneva, 2016.
    1. Serdula MK, Ivery D, Coates RJ, Freedman DS, Williamson DF, Byers T. Do obese children become obese adults? A review of the literature. Prev Med 1993;22:167-77. 10.1006/pmed.1993.1014 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Withrow D, Alter DA. The economic burden of obesity worldwide: a systematic review of the direct costs of obesity. Obes Rev 2011;12:131-41. 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2009.00712.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lifestyles Statistics Team HaSCIC. National Child Measurement Programme: England, 2014/15 school year, 2015.
    1. Waters E, de Silva-Sanigorski A, Hall BJ, et al. Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2011;(12):CD001871. - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data