Intervention on exercising outdoors 'works best among under fives'
13/07/2010 Communities looking to encourage kids to spend more time exercising outdoors will see more positive results among younger children, a new study suggests.
Professor Boyd Swinburn, chair of population health and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, recently presented the findings of a study which sought to establish the success of community based interventions in reducing childhood obesity.
The study, which was carried out on 12,000 children, revealed that the best results from interventions, such as encouraging more exercising outdoors, were most effective in children under five.
Among the children under five in the intervention group, the prevalence of obesity was around three percentage points less than those in the comparison group.
Community intervention had less of an effect on kids of primary school age, but it did slow down the rate of weight gain.
Mr Swinburn said: "Our results, together with the evidence from other demonstration projects conducted elsewhere, suggest we should get moving to scale up efforts in the under fives... what has been done around the world indicates these children seem to be the most susceptible to change."
Figures released by Datamonitor recently show that one in three children between five and thirteen are currently overweight.
Professor Boyd Swinburn, chair of population health and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, recently presented the findings of a study which sought to establish the success of community based interventions in reducing childhood obesity.
The study, which was carried out on 12,000 children, revealed that the best results from interventions, such as encouraging more exercising outdoors, were most effective in children under five.
Among the children under five in the intervention group, the prevalence of obesity was around three percentage points less than those in the comparison group.
Community intervention had less of an effect on kids of primary school age, but it did slow down the rate of weight gain.
Mr Swinburn said: "Our results, together with the evidence from other demonstration projects conducted elsewhere, suggest we should get moving to scale up efforts in the under fives... what has been done around the world indicates these children seem to be the most susceptible to change."
Figures released by Datamonitor recently show that one in three children between five and thirteen are currently overweight.
