Interventions for weight loss and weight gain prevention among youth - Current issues

The recent increase in the prevalence of paediatric obesity is one of the m ost pressing public health concerns today because of the immediate and long term health consequences associated with this often intractable disease. E fforts are currently being made to reduce the prevalence of paediatric obes ity. Youth weight loss studies have produced significant long term results. Most of these programmes included behaviour modification, diet and exercise. St udies have suggested that lifestyle exercise programmes may produce the bes t long term results. Effective components of these programmes appear to be parental involvement, reduced intake of foods having high energy density an d reductions in physical inactivity. Future weight loss studies need to det ermine the type, intensity, and duration of exercise that will produce acce ptable adherence and consequent long term weight loss, and to ascertain the reinforcing factors that determine youth behaviour choice. Weight gain prevention interventions for youth are clearly in their infancy . This review describes 3 completed and 2 ongoing weight gain prevention tr ials. One study showed reductions in the prevalence of obesity among junior high school girls, but not among boys. Another study among elementary scho ol students showed significant mean decreases in body mass index in boys an d girls following an intervention specifically to reduce time spent viewing television. Whether these studies altered food intake or increased physica l activity remains unclear. A combination of weight loss treatment and weight gain prevention strategie s employed in parallel is likely to yield the greatest benefits. Developmen t and testing of novel intervention strategies, using innovative behavioura l approaches to increase the likelihood that children will adopt healthy di etary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour patterns, holds great pro mise to significantly reduce the epidemic of obesity.