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The effects of hypothetical behavioral interventions on the 13-year incidence of overweight/obesity in children and adolescents.
- Source :
- International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity; 8/24/2023, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p1-17, 17p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Background: In view of the high burden of childhood overweight/obesity (OW/OB), it is important to identify targets for interventions that may have the greatest effects on preventing OW/OB in early life. Using methods of causal inference, we studied the effects of sustained behavioral interventions on the long-term risk of developing OW/OB based on a large European cohort. Methods: Our sample comprised 10 877 children aged 2 to < 10 years at baseline who participated in the well-phenotyped IDEFICS/I.Family cohort. Children were followed from 2007/08 to 2020/21. Applying the parametric g-formula, the 13-year risk of developing OW/OB was estimated under various sustained hypothetical interventions on physical activity, screen time, dietary intake and sleep duration. Interventions imposing adherence to recommendations (e.g. maximum 2 h/day screen time) as well as interventions 'shifting' the behavior by a specified amount (e.g. decreasing screen time by 30 min/day) were compared to 'no intervention' (i.e. maintaining the usual or so-called natural behavior). Separately, the effectiveness of these interventions in vulnerable groups was assessed. Results: The 13-year risk of developing OW/OB was 30.7% under no intervention and 25.4% when multiple interventions were imposed jointly. Meeting screen time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommendations were found to be most effective, reducing the incidence of OW/OB by -2.2 [-4.4;-0.7] and -2.1 [-3.7;-0.8] percentage points (risk difference [95% confidence interval]), respectively. Meeting sleep recommendations (-0.6 [-1.1;-0.3]) had a similar effect as increasing sleep duration by 30 min/day (-0.6 [-0.9;-0.3]). The most effective intervention in children of parents with low/medium educational level was being member in a sports club; for children of mothers with OW/OB, meeting screen time recommendations and membership in a sports club had the largest effects. Conclusions: While the effects of single behavioral interventions sustained over 13 years were rather small, a joint intervention on multiple behaviors resulted in a relative reduction of the 13-year OW/OB risk by between 10 to 26%. Individually, meeting MVPA and screen time recommendations were most effective. Nevertheless, even under the joint intervention the absolute OW/OB risk remained at a high level of 25.4% suggesting that further strategies to better prevent OW/OB are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- CONFIDENCE intervals
CHILDHOOD obesity
FOOD consumption
BEHAVIOR therapy
DISEASE incidence
TREATMENT effectiveness
PHYSICAL activity
SCREEN time
SLEEP duration
ATTRIBUTION (Social psychology)
HEALTH behavior
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
RESEARCH funding
PATIENT compliance
EDUCATIONAL attainment
DISEASE risk factors
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14795868
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 170394491
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-023-01501-6