Effectiveness of Lifestyle Intervention in Treatment of Pediatric Obesity

Thaweekul P, MD¹, Poonjarernsilp O, MD¹

Affiliation : ¹ Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand

Background: Lifestyle intervention is the cornerstone of the treatment in pediatric obesity. Various interventions have resulted in different degrees of reduction in body weight and cardiovascular outcomes.
Objective: To demonstrate the real-life effectiveness of obesity treatment in weight reduction among lifestyle intervention and usual care in our center and improvement of the cardiovascular risk factors.
Materials and Methods: A retrospective data of 170 first diagnosed, obese children and adolescents, aged 2 to 18 years were collected. All had been followed up for at least 12 months. Sixty-three patients received intensive nutrition education in the nutrition clinic and 107 received usual care in the general pediatric clinic and other subspecialty clinics of the Out-Patient Department of Thammasat Hospital.
Results: The overall BMI significantly reduced with the mean of 0.41 SDS (p <0.001). The mean BMI-SDS in the patients from the nutrition clinic had a significantly greater reduction as compared to the patients from the other clinics [–0.8 (95% CI –1.2 to –0.4) and –0.3 (95% CI –0.5 to 0), respectively; p=0.009]. The patients in the nutrition education program had 1.5 greater rate of the successful treatment than the patients that received usual care [RR 1.5 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.1); p=0.05]. There were significant improvements of total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol at the end of the 1-year period.
Conclusion: Intensive nutrition education program promoted a greater rate of successful weight reduction as compared to usual care. Patients who successfully reduced their weight had a greater improvement in some cardio-metabolic parameters.

Keywords : Cardiovascular risk, Childhood obesity, Lifestyle modification, Pediatric obesity, Weight loss

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