Evaluation of Therapy for Overweight Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Therapy in Multiprofessional Group Programs - Part 2, Collection and Analysis of Data

In Switzerland, the number of overweight children <18 years is estimated to 80'000 and related cardiovascular, osteoarticular and other complications are already present in approximately in 50% of these youth. Controlled studies demonstrated that multiprofessional treatment programs can reduce adiposity and improve health risk factors. To pre-empt the deterioration of obesity and co-morbidities in adult life, the Swiss Department of the Interior (EDI) approved in 2007 the reimbursement of treatment of overweight children by health insurances , if conducted in certified multi-professional family-based group programs. All programs have to participate in a scientific evaluation study supported by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in order to determine nationwide outcomes in clinical practice. The goal of this study is to evaluate individual changes of physical activity, nutrition, behaviours, quality of life, co-morbidities and adiposity during therapy and to identify predictors of positive or negative changes.

During 5 years, the investigators will recruit about 200 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years every year. Patients must have a Body Mass Index (BMI), fat mass or waist circumference above the 97th percentile, or a BMI above the 90th percentile plus a co-morbidity. Together with their parents they will be enrolled in an intensive group therapy program for 6 to 12 months, with 12 months of follow up. To date, in 25 certified centres, physicians, nutrition and physical activity specialists as well as psychologists can provide a multiprofessional standardized care, the costs of participation being reimbursed after regular presence. At start, after 1 year and 2 years, standardized instruments validated in Swiss or European children will be used to document changes during therapy. Questionnaires will assess motivation, weight of parents, personal and family history, quality of life, child and family lifestyle, parenting skills, eating or psychological disorders, and satisfaction. Other investigations will include medical examination, blood tests, and European Fitness (*Eurofit*)-test for physical fitness and capacities. Anonymised data will be recorded centrally in an electronic database, after controlling for completeness and plausibility. Informed consent and positive votes of local ethical committees will be obtained. Reports on cross-sectional and longitudinal descriptive statistics and benchmarking will be provided once yearly. A comprehensive multivariate analysis of complex associations between predictors and health-related outcomes will be completed. Statistical analyses will be performed by specialists in each field and will be supervised by public health scientists. To guarantee meaningful analyses, the last patients will be included in December 2013.