Effect of Structured Behavior Intervention Program on Childhood Obesity

Background: Obesity is also attributed to environmental factors. Feasible and cost effective strategies to prevent childhood obesity are least explored in India. The purpose of the intervention is to evaluate the effectiveness of Comprehensive School Health Manual (CSHM) among children through a Training of Trainers programme for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) school teachers.

Methods: The study was designed as a school-based intervention study adopting a cluster randomized design to recruit students of 3rd, 7th and 11th classes from 7 schools. The intervention and control arm had three and four schools respectively. Pre and post interventional anthropometric and behavioral measure were collected using standard methods.

Results: The overall prevalence of obesity was 12.6%. There was no difference in the incidence of obesity (3.7% vs. 3.8%) at the end of study period. Among the participants who had a favorable shift in nutritional grade, 65.4% were in intervention arm. There was a significant reduction in BMI z score (-0.16) and body fat percentage (-2.02) in the experiment group. Both the group reduced their calorie intake but it was significantly lower in intervention arm -381.9 (95% CI -428.2 to -335.4)

Conclusion: A structured behavior intervention delivered through a Training of Trainers (ToT) empowered children to adopt healthy behaviors towards weight management. It is crucial to sustain these behaviors for positive impact.Behavioral intervention