Lh. Epstein et al., DO CHILDREN LOSE AND MAINTAIN WEIGHT EASIER THAN ADULTS - A COMPARISON OF CHILD AND PARENT WEIGHT CHANGES FROM 6 MONTHS TO 10 YEARS, Obesity research, 3(5), 1995, pp. 411-417
Recent research has shown weight maintenance for obese preadolescent c
hildren over 60 and 120 month intervals, while studies on adults consi
stently show they fail to maintain weight loss, This paper is designed
to examine differences in percent overweight changes at 6, 60 and 120
months in obese parents and children from 113 families who participat
ed in randomized controlled outcome studies evaluating family-based be
havioral treatment, Analyses showed children had significantly greater
changes in percent overweight than their parents at each time point.
Chi-Square and Logistic Regression analyses showed children were more
likely than their parents at each time point to have percent overweigh
t decreases greater than 20%, with over 20% of the children and less t
han 1% of the parents showing changes this large, The implications of
these results for weight control are discussed, These results suggest
there may be differences in the efficacy of treating obesity in childr
en versus adults.