Community interventions that promote increased exercise and healthy eating for overweight children work best with very small children, according to a study from Deakin University in Australia.
- Dr. Boyd Swinburn and his colleagues studied more than 12,000 children, and found that interventions lose effectiveness as the children get older.
- They were most effective with children under five, and achieved few results for children in elementary and high schools.
- Children in the preschool group had rates of overweight and obesity at 3 percent less than the control group.
- Some of the older children who participated in community interventions had slower levels of weight gains.
"Once you get to high school aged children, trying to implement an intervention at the whole community level becomes more difficult." Dr. Swinburn said during his presentation at the International Congress on Obesity.
Labels: childhood_obesity, nutrition, prevention, exercise
Posted By: Aspen Education Group
