Childhood Obesity Treatment: A Maintenance Approach
Completed · Not applicable
Conditions studied: Obesity
In brief
Obesity is a major public health problem. At least 15 million American adults are obese, and the number is rising. Childhood obesity is also increasing in prevalence and currently affects approximately 11-22 percent of children aged 6 to 11. Childhood obesity is associated with serious negative physical, emotional, and social consequences. Obese children are at high risk for becoming obese as adults; 24-44 percent of obese adults were obese as children. The risk of an obese child becoming an obese adult is especially high when at least one parent is obese. To date, adult obesity is known to be resistant to treatment. In contrast, promising long-term effects have been found with children who received behavioral family-based weight loss treatment. However, even with state-of-the-science programs, a substantial percentage of children (i.e., over 40 percent) regain all or most of the weight lost once treatment ends. The proposed study examined the efficacy of two intervention strategies designed to improve the long-term maintenance of weight loss in children relative to discontinued treatment contact following an active weight loss treatment phase (no maintenance treatment control (NTC).
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00301197
- Run by
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- People needed
- 216
- Starts
- 1999-08-01
- Expected to finish
- 2004-04-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2006-03-10
Who can join
Age: 7 and older, up to 12. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Child:
- 20%-100% overweight
- 7-12 years old
- At least one parent:
- At least 20% overweight
- Actively participates in program along with participating child
- Both participating family members:
- Can read and speak English at a 3rd grade level
You may not qualify if…
- Either participating child or parent:
- has current psychopathology and is not in ongoing psychiatric care
- has an active substance abuse problem
- is not taking weight-affecting medications
- does not have a medical condition for which a weight loss program would be contraindicated
- does not have a physical disability of illness that limits their ability to do physical activity
- does not have major dietary restrictions
- is not participating in an active weight loss treatment
- All family members:
- do not have an active eating disorder
Where it is running
- Washington University School of Medicine — St Louis, Missouri, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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