Youth Lifestyle Intervention With Food and Exercise

Summary

Children who are overweight or obese can develop many health complications including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and they break their bones more often than children who are of healthy body weights. Recent short-term studies in children suggest that increasing milk intake for 16 weeks begins to improve body composition and also reduces risk of developing diabetes. However, no study has been long enough to truly test for the benefits of high milk consumption on these conditions including bone. Both dietary and activity approaches to reducing obesity in children are suggested by health professionals and when combined are called lifestyle interventions. Therefore, McGill University has designed a 1-year intervention study focused on lifestyle improvements to reduce obesity in children 6 to 12 years of age. A control group will be monitored for the year, while two other groups will receive lifestyle interventions with standard recommended (2 servings a day) and high (4 servings a day) intakes of milk. The intervention will include 6 planning sessions to increase intakes of vegetables, fruits and milks along with more activity and less time watching television or using computerized games. Children will have muscle and fat measured using an x-ray device that also measures bone at the beginning, middle and end of the study. They will also have a small blood sample taken every 3 months to measure blood sugar, cholesterol and some nutrients. Changes over the study will demonstrate the benefits of lifestyle and milk interventions.

Conditions

• Healthy
• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

2 servings dairy + exercise

Subjects in this group will receive family based counseling to maintain the intake of 2 servings of dairy per day and also receive instruction on how to improve their physical activity.

BEHAVIORAL

4 servings dairy + exercise

Subjects in this group will receive family based counseling to increase intake of dairy to 4 servings per day and also receive instruction on how to improve their physical activity.

BEHAVIORAL

Control

The group will receive information during the study about diet and exercise but will not receive the intervention until 6 months into the study protocol.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Dairy Farmers of Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• McGill University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Hope A Weiler, PhD, RD · McGill University

• Celia Rodd, MD · Montreal Children's Hospital of the MUHC

• Hugues Plourde, RD, PhD · McGill University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-12-31

Primary Completion

2014-05-31

Completion

2014-05-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations