Educating parents on healthy lifestyle helps get their overweight children off the couch and moving more. Researchers from United Kingdom developed a new family based intervention for childhood obesity called "Families for Health". They involved 27 overweight or obese children aging between 7 and 13 years (18 girls and 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families. The data regarding the child's body mass index, quality of life and self-esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships were collected. All the participants attended weekly sessions for 12 weeks. The children played games that kept them physically active, learned about healthy eating and discussed the emotional aspects of their lives with each other (including any problem they faced in dealing with their weight). The parents learned how to encourage healthy eating in a positive way by filling the kitchen with healthy food choices and improving their own diets; also, how to consistently enforce family rules and build their children's self esteem. At the end of the 3 months programme, the researchers found that the children's average body mass index had dipped and they were more active in their daily lives; and were also eating less junk food. And, their parents reported improvements in their relationships with their children and in their own mental well-being. It also highlighted the importance of the parent-child relationship in combating childhood obesity. The improvements were still observed after 6 months follow-up. It was concluded that the "Families for Health" programme helped the parents and their overweight or obese children to cope with the problems related to their weight. Further studies to evaluate its clinical effectiveness are required.
Archives of Disease in Childhood
November 2008
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