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Dietary Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity

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A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2021) | Viewed by 16231

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rocio Mateo-Gallego

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Guest Editor

Lipid Clinic and Molecular Research Laboratory, Physiatry and Nursing Department, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, IIS Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza, CIBERCV, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: overweight; obesity; childhood; prevention; intervention

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing rapidly, with an estimated rise of the global prevalence of children with overweight or obesity from 32 million in 1990 to 42 million in 2013 (Ng M et al; Lancet 2014). This phenomenon is especially observed in children within families with low socio-economic status, which evidences an important inequality that should be addressed. Given the high burden of obesity, the World Health Organization has recently highlighted the urgency of decreasing health inequalities and applied this approach to obesity prevention. Numerous approaches for either preventing or treating overweight and obesity in childhood have been explored; however, there is no wide consensus in those leading to the highest benefits, which are cost-effective and should be implemented. Among the most promising strategies, community-based interventions focused on school and environment settings have been developed with successful findings. These approaches include the implementation of health education on nutrition, increasing the number of physical activity lessons in school curricula, and the provision of healthy food at school. Promoting healthy dietary habits to parents within primary care settings has also been proposed as an effective strategy, although available studies have shown only a limited effect. To find lifestyle interventional strategies that are effective at preventing the excess of body weight in childhood, the early identification of those individuals at high risk should be a priority for the scientific community.

Dr. Rocio Mateo-Gallego
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Overweight
Obesity
Childhood
Prevention
Intervention

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 321 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of a School-Based Gardening, Cooking, Nutrition Intervention on Diet Intake and Quality: The TX Sprouts Randomized Controlled Trial

by Matthew J. Landry, Alexandra E. van den Berg, Deanna M. Hoelscher, Fiona M. Asigbee, Sarvenaz Vandyousefi, Reem Ghaddar, Matthew R. Jeans, Lyndsey Waugh, Katie Nikah, Shreela V. Sharma and Jaimie N. Davis

Nutrients 2021, 13(9), 3081; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093081 - 01 Sep 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5333

Abstract

School gardens have become common school-based health promotion strategies to enhance dietary behaviors in the United States. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of TX Sprouts, a one-year school-based gardening, cooking, and nutrition cluster randomized controlled trial, on students’ dietary intake and quality. Eight schools were randomly assigned to the TX Sprouts intervention and eight schools to control (i.e., delayed intervention) over three years (2016–2019). The intervention arm received: formation and training of Garden Leadership Committees; a 0.25-acre outdoor teaching garden; 18 student lessons including gardening, nutrition, and cooking activities, taught weekly in the teaching garden during school hours; and nine parent lessons, taught monthly. Dietary intake data via two 24 h dietary recalls (24 hDR) were collected on a random subsample (n = 468). Dietary quality was calculated using the Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-2015). The intervention group compared to control resulted in a modest increase in protein intake as a percentage of total energy (0.4% vs. −0.3%, p = 0.021) and in HEI-2015 total vegetables component scores (+4% vs. −2%, p = 0.003). When stratified by ethnicity/race, non-Hispanic children had a significant increase in HEI-2015 total vegetable scores in the intervention group compared to the control group (+4% vs. −8%, p = 0.026). Both the intervention and control groups increased added sugar intake; however, to a lesser extent within the intervention group (0.3 vs. 2.6 g/day, p = 0.050). School-based gardening, cooking, and nutrition interventions can result in significant improvements in dietary intake. Further research on ways to scale and sustain nutrition education programs in schools is warranted. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02668744). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dietary Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity)

12 pages, 264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enabling Better Nutrition and Physical Activity for Adolescents from Middle Eastern Backgrounds: Focus Groups

by Nematullah Hayba, Claudia Khalil and Margaret Allman-Farinelli

Nutrients 2021, 13(9), 3007; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093007 - 28 Aug 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3471

Abstract

The obesity epidemic in adolescents from Middle Eastern (ME) backgrounds necessitates co-designed and culturally-responsive interventions. This study’s objective was to gather the opinions, attitudes, capabilities, opportunities and motivations of ME adolescents residing in Australia on healthy eating and physical activity (PA) behaviours to inform a future prevention program. Five focus groups were conducted, with 32 ME participants, aged 13–18 years, recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. More participants were female (n = 19) and from lower socioeconomic areas (n = 25). A reflexive thematic analysis was performed using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model as the coding framework. Limited nutritional knowledge and cooking skills accompanied by a desire to make dietary changes were reported. Local and school facilities provided adolescents with PA opportunities, but participants declared safety concerns and limited opportunities for females and older grade students. Social support from family and friends were enablers for both healthy eating and PA. Cravings and desire for cultural foods influenced food choices. Individual and/or group approaches using social media and face-to-face format were recommended for future programs. To enable PA and dietary behaviour changes, interventions should be specifically tailored for ME adolescents to improve their nutrition literacy and skills, along with providing safe environments for sport in conjunction with social support. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dietary Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity)

Other

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26 pages, 1253 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Parent Involvement in Diet or Physical Activity Interventions to Treat or Prevent Childhood Obesity: An Umbrella Review

by Emily J. Tomayko, Alison Tovar, Nurgul Fitzgerald, Carol L. Howe, Melanie D. Hingle, Michael P. Murphy, Henna Muzaffar, Scott B. Going and Laura Hubbs-Tait

Nutrients 2021, 13(9), 3227; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13093227 - 16 Sep 2021

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6525

Abstract

Parents substantially influence children’s diet and physical activity behaviors, which consequently impact childhood obesity risk. Given this influence of parents, the objective of this umbrella review was to synthesize evidence on effects of parent involvement in diet and physical activity treatment and prevention interventions on obesity risk among children aged 3–12 years old. Ovid/MEDLINE, Elsevier/Embase, Wiley/Cochrane Library, Clarivate/Web of Science, EBSCO/CINAHL, EBSCO/PsycInfo, and Epistemonikos.org were searched from their inception through January 2020. Abstract screening, full-text review, quality assessment, and data extraction were conducted independently by at least two authors. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of diet and physical activity interventions that described parent involvement, included a comparator/control, and measured child weight/weight status as a primary outcome among children aged 3–12 years old were included. Data were extracted at the level of the systematic review/meta-analysis, and findings were narratively synthesized. Of 4158 references identified, 14 systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses (eight treatment focused and six prevention focused) were included and ranged in quality from very low to very high. Our findings support the inclusion of a parent component in both treatment and prevention interventions to improve child weight/weight status outcomes. Of note, all prevention-focused reviews included a school-based component. Evidence to define optimal parent involvement type and duration and to define the best methods of involving parents across multiple environments (e.g., home, preschool, school) was inadequate and warrants further research. PROSPERO registration: CRD42018095360. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dietary Interventions to Prevent Childhood Obesity)

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