Clinic-based weight control programs for childhood obesity are not accessible to many families. But guided self-help can treat childhood obesity, says a study done by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.
Initial studies at the UCSD indicated that a self-help treatment program for overweight children and their parents, guided by clinical experts, may be an effective solution. The study, led by Kerri Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, was the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of such a program.
Boutelle and colleagues registered 50 overweight children between the ages of eight and 12 and their family members in a low-intensity, five-month long treatment for childhood obesity, measuring the effects on a child's weight (measured as body mass index or BMI) immediately post-treatment and six months later. The researchers also evaluated whether the intervention promoted improvement in eating behavior and physical activity among children and parents. The results of the guided, self-help intervention program showed a significant decrease in BMI immediately after completing the 5-month treatment and also that the losses were maintained six months later, said a press release.
According to the UCSD researchers, such a program may be an improvement over current methods, especially because it is designed to fit a busy family's schedule.
"The guided self-help treatment includes offering structure along with a self-help program to help families stick to the program," said Boutelle. "Parents and their children are given a manual, and each week they read a chapter and try to apply the skills at home. Every other week they come in to our clinic at UC San Diego School of Medicine for 20 minutes and discuss how things were going with an interventionist. This is very different than traditional weight control programs where parents and kids come in every week for an hour-and-a-half-long group-based program."
"Importantly, the initial results of this study showed that that a self-help program, guided by professionals, may be as effective in helping kids to lose weight as a traditional, clinic-based weight loss program," Boutelle said
