Parents Key to Targeting Childhood Obesity

I have blogged before about the importance of parental involvement in managing childhood obesity.

A new study by Rebecca Golley and colleagues from, Adelaide, Australia, just released online in Obesity Reviews, confirms the importance of parental involvement in weight management of children at risk for excess weight.

The researchers identified seventeen studies, on behavioural intervention in children with excess weight and found that 11 of 17 studies showed positive results.

The effective studies were characterised by parents responsible for participation and implementation, greater parental involvement and inclusion of prompt barrier identification, restructure the home environment, prompt self-monitoring, prompt specific goal setting behaviour change techniques.

The positive studies tended to target energy intake/density and food choices.

This review clearly supports the notion that interventions to support and engage parents is key in addressing the childhood obesity epidemic.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

Golley RK, Hendrie GA, Slater A, & Corsini N (2010). Interventions that involve parents to improve children’s weight-related nutrition intake and activity patterns – what nutrition and activity targets and behaviour change techniques are associated with intervention effectiveness? Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity PMID: 20406416