| Abstract |
Introduction: Child obesity is now recognized as one of the most important public health problems the world faces today. Eating habits, physical activity, time-spent in front of screens, and family involvement are the main areas of intervention.
Research Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the second stage counseling intervention currently performed at PAGNI Childhood Obesity Clinic contributed to the reduction of body weight, waist circumference and BMI in the study sample.
Methodology: This is a 3-month observational and intervention study in a second stage intervention program conducted at the Regular Medical Office of the Heraklion University General Hospital (PAGNI). The sample contained 41 children, aged 6-18 years, with child obesity, without complications. The intervention lasted for 3 months and included nutritional evaluation, diagnosis, family counseling education, follow-up and re-evaluation.
Results: We noticed a statistically significant reduction in body weight and BMI by 2.04 ± 2.78 kg and 1.27 ± 1.41 (p <0,001), respectively. The average body weight was lower at the end of the study (mean = 61.45, SD= 17.3) compared to the corresponding value measured at the beginning of the study (mean = 63.48, SD=17.7), (p = 0,000). The mean BMI was lower at the end of the study, (mean = 25.93, SD= 3.45) compared to the mean BMI at the beginning of the study (mean = 27.2, SD= 3.62), (p = 0,000). Also, there was also a statistically significant decrease in waist circumference by 4.17 ± 4.17cm (p <0,001) between the start and end of the study.
A statistically significant difference was observed in BMI assessment (p <0,001), with a decrease in the percentage of morbidly obese children and a shift in participants to lower obesity ratings, but not in normal-weight children at the end of the intervention. Correspondingly, statistically significant results were also observed in the individual age groups.
There was also a statistically significant difference in the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption (p < 0,001 and p = 0,005, respectively), whereas, no difference was found in the frequency of breakfast consumption (p = 0,086).
At the end of the intervention, 4.8% of children had increased their physical activity to 3-4 times a week, 17.1% of children had increased it to 5-6 times a week, and 7.3% of children had a daily physical activity, (p = 0,017).
Conclusions: The results lead to the conclusion that this intervention was effective in reducing the body weight, BMI and waist circumference, in both age groups and sexes examined. Eating habits (breakfast, fruits, and vegetables), as well as physical activity habits of children and adolescents, appear to be influenced by behavioral intervention (in the presence of parents), carried out by the interdisciplinary team involved in this clinic.
Nevertheless, a larger sample size and a longer intervention period are required to draw safer conclusions. In addition, further studies are needed on interventions to prevent and treat child obesity, being a serious public health problem. It is imperative that emphasis be put on post-intervention monitoring to ascertain whether favorable results are maintained.
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