Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS We present the 7-year follow-up analysis in overweight children and adolescents, who had participated originally in a randomized control trial of a lifestyle intervention. We compared them to an untreated population-based control group to demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention. METHODS Degree of overweight (BMI-SDS) was determined in 32 overweight children (mean age 11.5 ± 1.5yrs, 65.6% females, mean BMI 23.7 ± 1.5 kg/m2) at onset of intervention (T0), end of 6-month intervention (T1), 12 months (T2) and 7 years after end of intervention (T3). A total of 76 overweight children derived from a representative national population survey served as control group. RESULTS The participants in the intervention group reduced significantly their BMI-SDS between T0-T1 (mean ± standard deviation -0.28 ± 0.28, p < 0.001) and demonstrated no significant changes between T1-T2 (mean ± standard deviation -0.10 ± 0.34) and between T2-T3 (median +0.07; interquartile range: -0.54-0.62). BMI-SDS at T3 was significantly (p = 0.015) lower compared to T0. At T3, 46.8% of the participants in the intervention were normal-weight. The reduction in BMI-SDS between T0-T3 was significantly (p = 0.043) greater in the intervention group (median -0.26; interquartile range -0.87-0.23 BMI-SDS) compared to the control group (mean ± standard deviation -0.05 ± 0.77). CONCLUSIONS The lifestyle intervention led to a significant reduction of overweight in the 7-year follow-up period. This decrease in BMI-SDS was significantly greater than the changes in BMI-SDS in a control group. This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00422916).
