Abstract
Research on weight-loss interventions in emerging adulthood is warranted. Therefore, a cognitive-behavioral group treatment (CBT), including development-specific topics for adolescents and young adults with obesity (YOUTH), was developed. In a controlled study, we compared the efficacy of this age-specific CBT group intervention to an age-unspecific CBT group delivered across ages in an inpatient setting. The primary outcome was body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) over the course of one year; secondary outcomes were health-related and disease-specific quality of life (QoL). 266 participants aged 16 to 21 years (65% females) were randomized. Intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol analyses (PPA) were performed. For both group interventions, we observed significant and clinically relevant improvements in BMI-SDS and QoL over the course of time with small to large effect sizes. Contrary to our hypothesis, the age-specific intervention was not superior to the age-unspecific CBT-approach.
Highlights
The increasing prevalence of overweight and obese adolescents and young adults throughout the world marks an alarming development
It was shown that many unhealthy changes in physical activity patterns and diet practices, which are related to the emergence of obesity, develop during emerging adulthood [4,7,8]
Besides results of ITT analyses based on data of 266 participants, results derived from a per-protocol analyses (PPA) are reported
Summary
The increasing prevalence of overweight and obese adolescents and young adults throughout the world marks an alarming development. Research on existing interventions targeting overweightness and obesity demonstrated that a combination of nutrition, physical activity and behavioral modification is necessary to achieve long-term success [19,20,21] In this regard, inpatient rehabilitation constitutes an important pillar for the treatment of obesity in Germany [22]. There is a common agreement that psychosocial outcomes such as Quality of Life (QoL) should be considered as well [33]; studies investigating psychosocial outcomes are rare In their meta-analysis, Ligthart and colleagues [34] included 11 studies examining the effects of multidisciplinary intervention programs compared with control interventions for overweight and obese children (three to 18 years of age) on QoL. A health educational group treatment, based on a cognitive-behavioral background, which includes development-specific topics for adolescents and young adults with obesity aged 16 to 21 years was developed and evaluated in a controlled study (the so-called YOUTH-study; [29]). Our secondary research aim was to investigate overall treatment effects over the course of one year
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