Background
Latinos have some of the highest rates of pediatric obesity compared to other ethnic minorities. Treatment efforts should include a multidisciplinary and culturally adapted approach. Program attendance has been shown to influence health outcomes, yet has not been explored with pediatric programs targeting low-income and ethnic minority populations.
Objective
To evaluate whether attendance improves anthropometric outcomes among Latino children who are overweight/obese and participating in a family based pediatric weight management program.
Study Design, Setting, Participants
Latino children participated in Vidas Activas y Familias Saludables (VALÉ), a multidisciplinary group-based program which focuses on diet, exercise, behavior modification, and adaptation to the Latino community. Latino children aged 5 to 9 years with BMI-for-age ≥85th percentile (overweight/obese category) were recruited through clinics and schools between 2017 and 2019. Participants and their families met approximately 90 minutes per week over the 10-week intervention.
Measurable Outcome/Analysis
Family attendance at each session was recorded. Anthropometric measurements including waist circumference, body fat (using bioelectrical impedance), height and weight for the assessment of BMI-for-age Z scores (compared to CDC growth charts) were measured pre-, and immediately-post the intervention. As data were non-normally distributed the relationship between attendance and anthropometric outcomes were analyzed via SPSS using Spearman correlation and Kruskal Wallis H test.
Results
A total of 57 participants completed both pre and post assessments with 7 who attended 0-40% of sessions, 12 attended 50-60%, 16 attended 70-80%, and 22 attended ≥90%. Although the median change in BMI, BMI Z, and waist circumference improved with higher attendance, no significant associations were observed between number of sessions attended and anthropometric outcomes.
Conclusions
Higher program attendance did not affect anthropometric outcomes of children participating in pediatric weight management program targeting low-income Latino families. The limited sample size available may have affected these results.
Funding George Mason University; Potomac Health Foundation.
Appendix. Supplementary data
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Copyright
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc.
