School-based obesity prevention promising

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A multi-component health promotion program in schools may help excess weight gain among 12 to 13 year-olds, a Dutch study shows.

"In the last decade, several international reports have addressed the significant increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents," the researchers write in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. These reports "underline the importance of developing effective, population-based preventive measures, specifically targeting the lower socioeconomic part of the population."

Dr. Marijke Jeannette Maidy Chin A Paw, of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues, examined whether a school-based multi-component health promotion intervention for Dutch adolescents would influence body composition and aerobic fitness.

Eighteen secondary schools participated in the study (10 in the intervention group and 8 in a comparison group), which included 978 adolescents who were an average of 12.7 years old.

The intervention program consisted of a curriculum adapted for 11 biology and physical education lessons that focused on calories consumed and calories burned. Activity options were also offered, including additional physical education classes and changes in school lunchrooms to foster changes in behavior. The authors collected data at the beginning of the program and after 8 months.

Statistically significant reductions in waist-to-hip ratio were seen in the intervention group for boys and girls. The researchers also observed a statistically significant favorable effect on the sum of skinfold measurements for girls in the intervention group.

"The increase in aerobic fitness was somewhat larger in the intervention group among both boys and girls, but this finding was not statistically significant," Chin A Paw and colleagues report.

"Well planned moderate physical activity and nutritional alterations to the school curricula may contribute to the prevention of excessive weight gain among adolescents," they conclude.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, June 2007.