Research Findings Suggest Parent Training Can Be Effective In Helping Children To Trigger Off Weight Loss
Date: 19th December 2008
In a specific study initiated by Dr. David M. Janicke and his colleagues from the University of Florida located in Gainesville, it was found that within 10 months, children below the age of 11, yielded better weight loss results in the program aimed at parent education while older children showed a significantly higher degree of weight loss results via the family-based program.
According to a report by the researchers at the “Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine”, to start off with the experiment, Dr. David M. Janicke and his colleagues took 93 overweight as well as obese children within the age group 8-14 and initiated comparison of a family-based and parent only weight loss program with no intervention. However, the researchers made about one-third of the participants to adopt the family based/parent only sessions provided via the “Cooperative Extension Service” offices that took care of the four rural counties in which each of the family had lived for a long time. The other participants (parents/children) were included in a waiting list and functioned as a control (comparison) group.
In the experiment, the sessions were directed at escalating pedometer-tallied physical activity as well as increasing fruit and vegetable intake and also reducing the intake of foods containing high fat and high sugar. After a period of 10 months, it became evident that in comparison to the control group, the kids in the intervention group had lost a significantly higher amount of weight. It also became obvious that children below 11 years had a 50 percent greater reduction in weight with the help of parent-only sessions while kids belonging to 11 years and older age group showed the same results with the help of family-based sessions.
Source: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, December 2008 |
