Childhood Obesity: a Study of Group Treatment Targeting Parents Behaviour

Summary

Long term effects of treatment of childhood obesity are not well documented but there is growing evidence that parental involvement and behavioral changes are strong predictors of children weight loss. However, which form and content of parental involvement are most effective is not studied. In the present randomized controlled study we compare the effect of parent manualized group treatment ("experimental group") to the effect of parent self-help groups on changes in children Body Mass Index, food intake, physical activity, quality of life and self esteem. We pose the following hypotheses:

1. Parents participating in the experimental group will have children who achieve a larger reduction in BMI than children with their parents in the control group.
2. This treatment effect will be mediated by changes in one of several elements of parents' cognition: outcome expectancies, perceived control, perceived value of outcome, self-efficacy, perceived reduction in barriers, and subjective norms.
3. Reduction in BMI will correlate with increased quality of life, reduced number and severity of mental health problems, and increased self-concept.

Conditions

• Childhood Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Parent manualized group treatment

Parent manualized group treatment in childhood obesity; 10 manualized group treatment over a 6 months period. Ten sessions will be conducted with the following content: 1) Expectancies and goal setting,; 2) Taking to the child about overweight; 3) Daily physical activity; 4) Everyday meals and nutrition; 5) Mastery and motivation; 6) Guidance and limit setting; 7) Who should join the team? The role of siblings and the social network; 8) Parents' history of eating and physical activity; 9) Self-concept and body image; and 10) Vacations and parties. Thereafter booster-meetings every third month over 1,5 years, in all 2 years treatment

BEHAVIORAL

Parent self-help groups

Professionals initiate and organize the self-help groups initially and attend the two first meetings. Their role will be to organize group and facilitate group rules governing group behaviors to be formed. The sharing of experiences, feelings, and thoughts concerning being a parent to an overweight child is encouraged, in addition to sharing tips and advices concerning managing their child's behavior. The groups will not receive any teaching or counseling concerning eating and physical activity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• St. Olavs Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ronnaug A Odegard, MD, PhD · St. Olavs Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2004-10-31

Primary Completion

2010-04-30

Completion

2010-04-30

Countries

• Norway