Objective: To address positive airway pressure (PAP) adherence in adolescents diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) by pilot testing a novel, online, facilitated, peer-support and health education programme for families.
Design Setting And Methods: Families participated in separate Facebook peer-groups (adolescent [n=6] and parent [n=6]) for four weeks, followed by face-to-face interviews. Participants received OSA and PAP educational videos and posts, engaged with questions and polls, and viewed de-identified postings of peer PAP use data.
Background: Currently the most effective treatment for severe obesity in adolescents is weight-loss surgery coupled with lifestyle behavior change. In preparation for weight-loss surgery, adolescents are required to make changes to eating and activity habits (lifestyle changes) to promote long term success. Social media support groups, which are popular among adolescents, have the potential to augment preoperative lifestyle changes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Obesity and depression frequently co-occur, and each increases risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study tested whether a combined treatment, targeting obesity and depression simultaneously, would yield greater improvements in weight, mood, and CVD risk factors than treatments that targeted each disease individually.
Methods: Seventy-six participants with obesity and major depression were randomly assigned to (1) behavioral weight control (BWC), (2) cognitive behavioral therapy for depression (CBT-D), or (3) BWC combined with CBT-D.
Background: Severe obesity in adolescents has deleterious physical and psychological complications necessitating frequent multi-disciplinary clinic visits. Greater treatment engagement has been equated with weight-loss. However, traditional medical weight-loss programs for adolescents have high attrition rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Few studies have addressed obesity prevention among low-income families whose infants are at increased obesity risk. We tested a Facebook peer-group intervention for low-income mothers to foster behaviors promoting healthy infant growth.
Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 87 pregnant women (Medicaid insured, BMI ≥25 kg/m) were randomized to the Grow2Gether intervention or text message appointment reminders.
Background: Evidence increasingly indicates that childhood obesity prevention efforts should begin as early as infancy. However, few interventions meet the needs of families whose infants are at increased obesity risk due to factors including income and maternal body mass index (BMI). Social media peer groups may offer a promising new way to provide these families with the knowledge, strategies, and support they need to adopt obesity prevention behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Despite many recommended strategies for obesity prevention during infancy, effectively delivering recommendations to parents in clinical settings is challenging, especially among high-risk populations. This study describes and compares mothers' and clinicians' priorities for obesity prevention during infancy, to facilitate more-effective obesity prevention messaging.
Methods: A discrete choice experiment using maximum difference scaling was administered in 2013 and analyzed in 2013-2014.
Lifestyle modification programs (LMP) for weight loss in adolescents with obesity are effective but not available. Primary care may be a setting for reaching more adolescents. Two models of LMP for use in primary care were examined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To assess the association of weight loss and insulin sensitivity, glucose tolerance, and metabolic syndrome (MS) in obese adolescents following weight loss treatment, and to determine the threshold amount of weight loss required to observe improvements in these measures.
Study Design: A randomized, controlled behavioral weight loss trial was conducted with 113 obese adolescents. Changes in fasting insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, whole body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI), body mass index (BMI), and MS criteria were assessed at baseline and at month 4.
Objective: The relationship between weight change in caregivers and their adolescents was evaluated following a randomized trial of lifestyle modification for adolescents, which included either a conventional diet or meal replacements.
Methods: Adolescents (N = 113) had an M ± SD age of 15.0 ± 1.
Objective: To examine female caregiver and adolescent dyad characteristics that predict the female caregiver's concern about their adolescent's weight and the degree to which caregiver concern predicts desire for physician intervention.
Method: Fifty-three caregivers of adolescents with persistent obesity were asked to report on their adolescent's quality of life (QOL), weight status, concern about their adolescent's weight, and desire for physician intervention.
Results: Results indicated that only caregiver-reported QOL was a meaningful predictor of caregiver concern for African-American adolescents with persistent obesity accounting for 51% of the variance and that caregiver concern predicted desire for physician intervention accounting for 46% of the variance.
There is a dearth of research on the long-term efficacy and safety of treatments for adolescent obesity. This narrative review examined several approaches to treatment, focusing on long-term effectiveness data in adolescents, as well as relevant findings from studies of adults. The available research suggests that lifestyle modification has promise in obese adolescents, although it is not clear that any particular dietary or physical activity approach is more effective than another.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUse of meal replacements (MRs) in lifestyle modification programs (LMPs) for obese adults significantly increases weight loss, compared with prescription of an isocaloric conventional diet (CD). This 12-month randomized trial examined 113 obese adolescents (mean ± s.d.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about binge eating (BE) in adolescents. The primary aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between BE and weight loss in adolescents (BMI ≥95th percentile) enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of behavioral and pharmacologic treatment of obesity. Participants were 82 treatment-seeking adolescents (BMI = 37.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithin the United States, minority youth are at greater risk of becoming overweight/obese and are less likely to receive preventive health care. The authors examined several domains of preventive health care perceptions among persistently overweight/obese white and black adolescents. A total of 55 youth (29 white, 26 black) who had previously sought weight management treatment participated in a follow-up study 4 years later (M (years) = 4.
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