Guided Self-help for Families With an Overweight Child

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Other: Immediate Treatment Group
Other: Delayed Treatment Group

Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a home based program can teach parents and moderately overweight kids who are of 8-12 years old with a BMI% between 85-97%, how to manage their child's weight. The study uses manuals and involves a short visit to the clinic every other week.

Detailed Description: An estimated 4-5 million children between the ages of 6-17 in the United States are obese. Children who are obese are at an increased risk for many negative health consequences in childhood and in adulthood. In addition, these children are at an increased risk for psychosocial consequences in childhood and adolescence, including poor self-esteem, teasing, verbal abuse and social isolation. Guided self-help offers an opportunity to provide empirically based programs to a larger amount of the target population. Once such treatment methods are available, it is possible that the guided self-help treatment for childhood obesity can be disseminated to primary care practitioners, psychologists, nurses, and health educators. Ultimately, the goal of this application is to develop a treatment protocol that can be used by clinics and lay health professionals to intervene with children who are overweight and their parents.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

child between the ages of 8 & 12
an moderately overweight child with a BMI% between 85-97%
child has a parent willing to participate
child has a parent who can read English at a minimum of a 6th grade level
family who is willing to commit to treatment attendance and attendance at all assessments.

Exclusion Criteria

Child psychiatric disorder diagnoses (based on parent report)
Child diagnoses of a serious current physical disease (such as diabetes)
Child who is taking medications that may impact their weight
Child with physical difficulties that limit the ability to exercise
Child with an active eating disorder
Child and parent will be moving out of the San Diego County before study completion
Child and/or parent has a modified diet due to religious or socially conscious reasons (such as Vegan, vegetarian)

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Immediate treatment group	Immediate Treatment Group	The immediate treatment group begins the 5-month treatment immediately after baseline assessment.
Delayed Treatment Group	Delayed Treatment Group	The delayed treatment group serves as the control group. This group starts treatment 5 months after the baseline assessment. No intervention is involved during this 5-month waiting period. After 5 months, the delayed group is assessed for the second time and then begins the 5-month treatment.

Primary Outcome Measures