Publication
Project Obesity Zero
| dc.contributor.author | Rito, Ana Isabel | |
| dc.contributor.author | Carvalho, Maria Ana | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ramos, Carlos | |
| dc.contributor.author | Breda, João | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2012-02-16T11:40:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2012-02-16T11:40:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2011-04-07 | |
| dc.description | Comunicação por convite. | por |
| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: Childhood Obesity represents one of the most serious public health challenges, as it reached epidemic levels in several countries around the world. The prevention and treatment of this disease should be a top priority. The interventions used within childhood obesity approach should be community and family based and should essentially lie upon behaviour modification regarding diet and physical activity. The main purpose of the Project Zero Obesity (POZ) is to tackle childhood obesity at municipality level trough a set of activities (Healthy cooking programme and a nutritional guidance programme) targeted at low income families with overweight children (6-10 years old). Methods: A Quasi-experimental multicentric study, developed in 2009/2010 in five Portuguese municipalities from the five regions of Portugal: Melgaço - North, Mealhada- Centre, Cascais - Great Lisbon, Beja - Alentejo articulated with Healthcare centres and local governments. The program offered, to children and their families, a four stages intervention: a) 4 sessions of Individual Nutrition Counseling, b) a Healthy Cooking workshop, c) 2 children’s group sessions (nutrition and physical activity) and d) a Parents/families Group counselling. Two training sessions were conducted by the same trainer following the same methodology. Each fieldworker (5 nutritionists: 1 nutritionist for each municipality) received an “POZ Manual” with standardization of anthropometric measurements, nutrition and physical activity counselling, the Evaluation Forms and the dietary assessment methods The anthropometric instruments (digital scale and stadiometers) were calibrated and given to the municipalities. The anthropometric examinations were performed according to the POZ manual and the recommended techniques. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated using the formula weight (kg)/height (m)2 being height the average of the two height measurements performed in every child. The criteria used to definitions of overweight and obesity was the CDC Growth charts (2000) defining Overweight and Obesity as BMI-for-age ≥ 85 and ≥ 95 percentiles respectively. This criteria was adopted by the Portuguese Ministry of Health. Outcomes of nutritional status were assessed at the baseline and after 6 months. Results: The study enrolled 482 overweight children from the 5 municipalities. Parent’s written consent was not obtained from 188 participants. Of the 294 overweight children participants in the intervention (47,5% boys and 52,9% girls; mean age 8,6 years; mean percentile 93,6), 220 have completed the program. 80,5% of children decreased their percentile during the project. Mean percentile (P) decreased from P 93,6 to P 91,3 and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0,05). Conclusions: Zero Obesity Project established and promoted a real partnership between healthcare centres and local governments, was the first community-family-based programme targeting overweight children in Portugal and developed competences and skills, within the families, about nutrition, healthier food selection, preparation and cooking, especially in those families with obese children. These data suggest that interventions at local level can have significant effects on childhood overweight prevalence. This knowledge may identify additional potential effective interventions in order to reverse the obesity trends in Portuguese children, one of the highest in Europe. | por |
| dc.description.sponsorship | O Projecto Obesidade Zero foi financiado pela Direcção-Geral da Saúde. | por |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/592 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | por |
| dc.publisher | Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, IP | por |
| dc.subject | Estilos de Vida e Impacto na Saúde | por |
| dc.title | Project Obesity Zero | por |
| dc.type | conference object | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.conferencePlace | Bruxelas | por |
| oaire.citation.title | 2º Simposium da Rede Europeia EPODE, 7 April 2011 | por |
| rcaap.rights | restrictedAccess | por |
| rcaap.type | conferenceObject | por |