Single versus multiple-family intervention in childhood overweight - Finnmark Activity School: A randomised trial

Objective: To compare a new comprehensive lifestyle programme performed in groups of families with overweight (included obese) children with a more conventional single-family programme. The study design and interim anthropometrical results after 12 months are presented. Design: Altogether 97 overwei...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of Disease in Childhood
Main Authors: Kokkvoll, Ane Sofie, Grimsgaard, Sameline, Ødegård, Rønnaug, Flægstad, Trond, Njølstad, Inger
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2014
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2386629
https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2012-303571
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Summary:Objective: To compare a new comprehensive lifestyle programme performed in groups of families with overweight (included obese) children with a more conventional single-family programme. The study design and interim anthropometrical results after 12 months are presented. Design: Altogether 97 overweight and obese children aged 6–12 years with body mass index (BMI) corresponding to cut-off point ≥27.5 in adults were included. Study participants were randomised to multiple-family intervention (MUFI) or single-family intervention (SIFI) in a parallel design. MUFI comprised a 3-day inpatient programme at the hospital with other families and a multidisciplinary team, follow-up visits in their hometown individually and in groups, organised physical activity twice weekly and a 4-day family camp after 6 months. SIFI comprised individual counselling by paediatric nurse, paediatric consultant and nutritionist at the hospital and follow-up by public health nurse in the community. Solution focused approach was applied in both interventions. Primary outcome measures were change in BMI kg/m2 and BMI SD score (BMI SDS). Results: BMI increased by 0.37 units in the MUFI compared to 0.77 units in the SIFI (p=0.18). BMI SDS decreased by 0.16 units in the MUFI group compared to 0.07 units in the SIFI group (p=0.07). Secondary endpoint waist circumference decreased 0.94 cm in the multiple-family group and increased 0.95 cm in the single-family group, p=0.04. Conclusions: Interim analysis after 12 months showed no between-group difference in terms of BMI or BMI SDS. The MUFI group had a significant decrease in waist circumference compared to the SIFI group. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/