Play as a Method to Reduce Overweight and Obesity in Children: An RCT

Abstract

Background: Overweight and obesity are the result of a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors, which begins prenatally. Aim: To analyse an intervention based on play as a means of improving the body composition of children who are overweight or obese. Methods: The Kids-Play study is a randomized clinical trial (RCT) consisting of 49 children aged 8–12 years on a nine-month intervention programme based on physical activity, play and nutritional advice. Controls had another 49 children, who received only nutritional advice. Results: The play-based intervention achieved a moderate-vigorous level of physical activity in the study group of 81.18 min per day, while the corresponding level for the control group was only 37.34 min. At the start of the intervention, the children in the study group had an average body fat content of 41.66%, a level that decreased to 38.85% by the end of the programme. Among the control group, body fat increased from 38.83% to 41.4% during the same period. Conclusions: The intervention programme considered, based on both play and nutritional recommendations, produced a decrease in body fat among children aged 8–12 years. However, the control group, which received only nutritional recommendations, experienced an increase in body weight.

Time Use Patterns in Children With and Without Childhood Obesity

“…In this study, we found that children who are not obese spent more time per week to actively participate in play activities than children who are obese. This finding is similar to Sánchez-López et al [13] and Janssen [21] studies in which they found similar results and have gone to further recommend that spending more time actively participating in play among children might be an effective means to fight childhood overweight and obesity.…”

“…Furthermore, the transition from childhood to adolescence appears to be a period during which active participation in play declines, with the end of primary school (10-11 years) being a critical period [12]. Sánchez-López et al [13] emphasized that this decline in active participation in play in these children is associated with increase in their BMI. This is because, children expend high calories of energy through active participation in play [14].…”

Does the Price Support Policy Drive a Balanced Distribution of Profits in the Chinese Dairy Supply Chain? Implications for Supplier and Consumer Psychology

“…An important prerequisite for the validity of the DID method is the convergence hypothesis ( Bogadóttir, 2020 ; Khan et al, 2020 ; Sánchez-López et al, 2020 ). In our study, this means that, if the raw milk purchase guide price policy was not implemented, the price trend in the province or municipality of the experimental group should have been equal to that of the control group.…”

Child obesity moderates the association between poverty and academic achievement

“…It is clear that we need continued research and development of cost‐effective behavioral and systems‐level interventions to curb obesity and promote more successful educational outcomes (Davies et al, 2007). Some nascent approaches appear to be promising, including implementation of nutrition policies in schools (e.g., alternatives to food‐based rewards/celebrations; Ickovics et al, 2019), promotion of healthy school food environments (Teo et al, 2019), classroom‐based lifestyle interventions (Hsiang et al, 2020; Salam et al, 2020), school‐based nutritional education programs (Hawkins et al, 2020), summer and after‐school weight management programs (Mabli et al, 2020; Reesor et al, 2018), as well as initiatives aimed at reducing sedentary behavior and screen time (Goldthorpe et al, 2020), with a synchronized focus on increased physical activity through after‐school clubs, class physical activity breaks (Jones et al, 2020; Santina et al, 2020; Yuksel et al, 2020), and play‐based interventions (Sanchez‐Lopez et al, 2020). Moreover, an important component of any intervention strategy is to incentivize decision‐makers to advocate for increased funding as a way to implement more large‐scale social policy changes to educate and train the next generation of school‐based health practitioners (e.g., occupational therapists) who will undoubtedly have a significant impact on child body weight management and obesity prevention (Hartley, 2019).…”