Dietary and exercise interventions for juvenile obesity: long-term effect of behavioral and public health models.

Author: Johnson WG, Hinkle LK, Carr RE, Anderson DA, Lemmon CR, Engler LB, Bergeron KC

Author affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216-4505, USA.

Publication date & source: 1997.05, Obes Res., 5(3):257-61.

Publication type: Clinical Trial; Comparative Study ; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

We investigated the influence of nutrition and exercise interventions within cognitive/behavioral and public health formats on weight and blood lipid profiles in obese children. Compliance was also examined as well as the relationship of the compliance measures with clinical outcome variables. Three conditions were compared over 16 sessions: nutrition and eating-habit change followed by exercise (NE), exercise followed by nutrition and eating-habit change (EN), and an information control (INFO). NE and EN were presented in a cognitive/ behavioral framework which focused on the development of self-regulation whereas the INFO condition received the same material in a public health/educational model. NE and EN participants evidenced modest, yet significant, reductions in weight and blood lipids, and the impact of these two interventions endured at a five-year follow-up. In contrast, INFO participants displayed stable weight and blood lipids during the course of the program, and most remained morbidly obese at follow-up. Improved nutrition, increased physical activity and fitness were significantly correlated with weight and lipid reductions.