Challenge! Adolescent Obesity Prevention

Summary

The prevalence of overweight among adolescents (BMI-for-age %tile over the 95th percentile) has more than tripled over the past 3 decades in the US. Overweight and physical inactivity disproportionately affect low- income, female, African American adolescents.

A prior health-promotion/ obesity-prevention program for adolescents developed and tested by our group (Challenge!) showed that adolescents who received the intervention were less likely to become overweight or obese over 2 years when compared to the control group. This intervention was administered one-on-one to adolescents in their homes or community by a college-aged mentor.

Schools are an ideal setting for interventions because the effect can be far-reaching and sustainable. School-based obesity-prevention interventions have thus far shown modest results.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a multilevel intervention that includes both the Challenge program administered in a small group format after school using mentors and teachers and a school-wide environmental change on adolescent females' body composition, diet, and physical activity. The intervention is targeted to 6th and 7th grade female students. The small group intervention is conducted over 12 weeks and includes goal setting focusing on healthy diet and physical activity, along with membership and weekly trips to the YMCA. The environmental intervention includes a Health and Activity Committee (HAC), comprised of 8th grade female students (popular opinion leaders), school personnel, parents, and community members. The HAC develops school-wide health promotion messages and activities. Parents of participating 6th and 7th grade girls provide information on family variables. The hypotheses are that females who receive the small group or environmental intervention are at less risk of weight gain (overweight) than females in the control small group condition, that females in environmental schools are at less risk of weight gain (overweight) than females in the control environmental condition, and that females who receive both the small group and environmental intervention are at the lower risk of weight gain (overweight) than females who receive only the environmental or small group intervention or neither intervention.

Conditions

• Overweight
• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Challenge! Small Group Intervention

The Challenge! Small Group intervention consists of curriculum related to health behavior goal setting, healthy eating, and staying active, working out with Health Educators, and receiving a year-long membership to the YMCA.

OTHER

Challenge! Environmental Intervention

The environmental intervention involves the formation of a Health and Activity Committee composed of community members, teachers, parents, school staff, and 8th grade girls from the school. Together, this group comes up with ways to make their school environment healthier.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  collaborator OTHER

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  collaborator OTHER

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Maryland, Baltimore

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Maureen M Black, PhD · University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Growth & Nutrition Division

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-09-30

Primary Completion

2014-01-31

Completion

2014-01-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations