Physical activity in the treatment of childhood overweight and obesity: current evidence and research issues

Purpose: This paper reviews the utility of exercise as a treatment for over weight and obese children and adolescents. Methods: Computer database searc hes identified 13 studies that met the following criteria for inclusion: 1) obese children or adolescents were provided either different types of exer cise programs or an exercise progam compared with a no-exercise control: 2) subjects were randomly assigned to groups or assigned by matching on demog raphic and anthropometric variables, and 3) the exercise program was at lea st 2 months in duration. Results: The only area in which there were a suffi cient number of studies to make a quantitative analysis was the comparison of diet versus diet plus exercise programs, which suggested that exercise a dds to the effect of diet in the short-term treatment of pediatric obesity. There was not enough research to evaluate the effects of exercise alone. T he majority of findings indicate fitness changes are greater for subjects p rovided exercise alone or exercise combined with diet in comparison with su bjects provided no exercise (control) or diet alone. Conclusions: Research on effects of exercise or physical activity in pediatric obesity treatments are encouraging and may be important for improving treatment outcome for o besity and comorbid conditions. Recommendations for future research are pre sented.