TY - JOUR
T1 - Pilot of "Families for Health'': community-based family intervention for obesity
AU - Robertson, W
AU - Friede, T
AU - Blissett, Jacqueline
AU - Rudolf, MCJ
AU - Wallis, M
AU - Stewart-Brown, S
PY - 2008/11/1
Y1 - 2008/11/1
N2 - Objective: To develop and evaluate "Families for Health'', a new community based family intervention for childhood obesity.
Design: Programme development, pilot study and evaluation using intention-to-treat analysis.
Setting: Coventry, England.
Participants: 27 overweight or obese children aged 7-13 years (18 girls, 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families.
Intervention: Families for Health is a 12-week programme with parallel groups for parents and children, addressing parenting, lifestyle change and social and emotional development.
Main outcome measures: Change in baseline BMI z score at the end of the programme (3 months) and 9-month follow-up. Attendance, drop-out, parents' perception of the programme, child's quality of life and self-esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships and lifestyle changes were also measured.
Results: Attendance rate was 62%, with 18 of the 27 (67%) children completing the programme. For the 22 children with follow-up data (including four who dropped out), BMI z score was reduced by 20.18 (95% CI-20.30 to-0.05) at 3 months and-20.21 (-0.35 to-0.07) at 9 months. Statistically significant improvements were observed in children's quality of life and lifestyle (reduced sedentary behaviour, increased steps and reduced exposure to unhealthy foods), child-parent relationships and parents' mental health. Fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in moderate/ vigorous exercise and children's self-esteem did not change significantly. Topics on parenting skills, activity and food were rated as helpful and used with confidence by most parents.
Conclusions: Families for Health is a promising new childhood obesity intervention. Definitive evaluation of its clinical effectiveness by randomised controlled trial is now required.
AB - Objective: To develop and evaluate "Families for Health'', a new community based family intervention for childhood obesity.
Design: Programme development, pilot study and evaluation using intention-to-treat analysis.
Setting: Coventry, England.
Participants: 27 overweight or obese children aged 7-13 years (18 girls, 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families.
Intervention: Families for Health is a 12-week programme with parallel groups for parents and children, addressing parenting, lifestyle change and social and emotional development.
Main outcome measures: Change in baseline BMI z score at the end of the programme (3 months) and 9-month follow-up. Attendance, drop-out, parents' perception of the programme, child's quality of life and self-esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships and lifestyle changes were also measured.
Results: Attendance rate was 62%, with 18 of the 27 (67%) children completing the programme. For the 22 children with follow-up data (including four who dropped out), BMI z score was reduced by 20.18 (95% CI-20.30 to-0.05) at 3 months and-20.21 (-0.35 to-0.07) at 9 months. Statistically significant improvements were observed in children's quality of life and lifestyle (reduced sedentary behaviour, increased steps and reduced exposure to unhealthy foods), child-parent relationships and parents' mental health. Fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in moderate/ vigorous exercise and children's self-esteem did not change significantly. Topics on parenting skills, activity and food were rated as helpful and used with confidence by most parents.
Conclusions: Families for Health is a promising new childhood obesity intervention. Definitive evaluation of its clinical effectiveness by randomised controlled trial is now required.
U2 - 10.1136/adc.2008.139162
DO - 10.1136/adc.2008.139162
M3 - Article
C2 - 18463121
SN - 0003-9888
VL - 93
SP - 921
EP - 926
JO - Archives of Disease in Childhood
JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood
IS - 11
ER -