47 THE EFFECTS OF PARENTAL COOPERATION ON MAINTENANCE CF WEIGHT LOSS IN OBESE CHILDREN

Abstract

Maintenance of health behavior change is one of the most difficult problems in preventive medicine. The present study evaluated the effects of including obese parents as weight loss participants in the treatment of obese 6-12 year old children. Seventy-six families with at least one obese child and parent were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: Group I included both the parent and child as weight loss targets; Group II had only the child as the target, and Group III did not specify either as the target. Participants were provided an eight-month behaviorally oriented treatment designed to change both eating and exercise habits, and a two year follow-up. Child results showed highly significant (p<.01) changes from pretreatment to the 8 month follow-up in relative weight across all three groups, with Groups I (17.1%) and II (18.7%) showing superior changes compared to Group III (13.8%). At the two year follow-up, all groups were still significantly less (10%) than at pretreatment, with no differences across groups. However, very different patterns of maintenance emerged, with all the children in Group I who were non-obese at the 8 month point still non-obese (7/7), while 40% of children in Groups II (4/10) and III (2/5) were still non-obese (p<.05). These results clearly show that weight loss can be maintained in obese pre-adolescents, and that active parental involvement is an important component.