School-based weight management programs may be effective
March 4th, 2010 - 4:03 pm ICT by ANIWashington, March 4 (ANI): A new American study suggests that a school-based weight-management program can be very useful in reaching large numbers of kids.
Researchers Craig A. Johnston, John P. Foreyt and Chermaine Tyler and their team is building upon one of their previous studies in which many of their Texas middle-school participants has been successful with managing their weight. The volunteers were mainly Hispanic children who were either overweight or at risk of becoming so.
The researchers are with the ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, where Johnston and Tyler are instructors in nutrition and Foreyt is a professor of medicine.
Statistics that the researchers reported for the 6-month study were based on 57 overweight kids who were given either a self- and parent-taught program or an intensive, instructor-led regimen.
For example, kids in the self-taught group spent time in study hall every week for the first 3 months of the investigation, reading a self-help, weight-management textbook for youngsters. Meanwhile, their peers in the instructor-led team spent four class periods a week outdoors, improving their physical fitness, with a fifth session each week-indoors-learning about nutrition, healthy eating, and behaviour-change skills essential for living an active lifestyle and making healthful food choices.
When appraised at the end of the 6-month study, kids in the intensive, instructor-led course showed significantly greater weight loss as well as greater “physical quality of life” than the kids in the self-taught program. The quality of life was measured by their answers to a standard questionnaire.
Also, one and two years later, youngsters in the instructor-led team had significantly greater decreases in their body mass index, or BMI, than their self-taught counterparts.
According to scientists, these results suggest that a school-based weight-management program might be effective in reaching large numbers of kids.
The findings of the research have appeared in the journal Obesity in 2009 and in Pediatrics in 2007. (ANI)
- Childhood obesity comes from unhealthy lifestyle: Study - Feb 01, 2011
- Adopting healthy habits at work can help employees keep weight off - Mar 27, 2011
- Better body image helps weight loss - Jul 18, 2011
- Drinking vegetable juice 'can help people meet key dietary guidelines' - Feb 04, 2011
- Pistachios, not pretzels, are weight-loss snack! - May 04, 2011
- Obese girls show greater poise when happy with their shape - Apr 30, 2012
- MEND program effective in child obesity prevention - Feb 02, 2010
- Parents can motivate kids into shedding weight - Mar 15, 2012
- Blame habits for childhood obesity, not heredity - Feb 01, 2011
- Kids sharing family meals less likely to binge - May 02, 2011
- Most Americans struggle with long-term weight loss: Study - Sep 04, 2010
- Weight loss increases Vitamin D in obese women - May 26, 2011
- New study provides answers to obesity trinity - Sep 06, 2010
- Weight-related bullying could change how schoolgoers perceive their bodies - Sep 08, 2010
- Social and emotional learning programs boost students' skills - Feb 05, 2011
Tags: baylor college of medicine, baylor college of medicine in houston, baylor college of medicine in houston texas, behaviour change, body mass index, chermaine, class periods, college of medicine, fifth session, healthful food choices, hispanic children, john p foreyt, management textbook, nutrition research center, overweight kids, physical fitness, physical quality, school participants, weight management program, weight management programs