Obese children are at an increased risk of becoming obese adults in comparison to their leaner peers. In addition, parental weight greatly increases the risk of becoming a heavy adult. A heavy child with a heavy parent is 2.5 times as likely of becoming an obese adult as a heavy child with thin parents. This proposal is designed to study factors that may contribute to this increased risk. These factors incluce child eating and exercise patterns, parent-child interaction patterns, food preferences, modeling and parent self-efficacy. The proposed study is a randomized controlled outcome evaluation of family-based treatment procedures in obese children with thin or heavy parents. Obese children will be stratified according to parent weight and then randomized to treatment or control group. Families will either be provided a 12 week general health education program or a parent management program focusing on changing eating and exercise habits. After this phase of treatment, children will be seen at months 6, 12 and 24 for follow-up. It is predicted that parents and obese children in families with thin or heavy parents will differ in their eating and activity patterns, their interaction patterns, and parental self-efficacy. In addition, it is predicted that children provided treatment will do better than controls over the 24 months of observation, and there will be an interaction of treatment with parent weight, so that children with thin parents will do better than children with obese parents.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD019532-01
Application #
3316847
Study Section
Behavioral Medicine Study Section (BEM)
Project Start
1984-12-01
Project End
1987-11-30
Budget Start
1984-12-01
Budget End
1985-11-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
053785812
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Epstein, L H; Valoski, A; Wing, R R et al. (1994) Ten-year outcomes of behavioral family-based treatment for childhood obesity. Health Psychol 13:373-83
Epstein, L H (1993) Methodological issues and ten-year outcomes for obese children. Ann N Y Acad Sci 699:237-49
Epstein, L H; McCurley, J; Wing, R R et al. (1990) Five-year follow-up of family-based behavioral treatments for childhood obesity. J Consult Clin Psychol 58:661-4
Epstein, L H; McCurley, J; Valoski, A et al. (1990) Growth in obese children treated for obesity. Am J Dis Child 144:1360-4
Valoski, A; Epstein, L H (1990) Nutrient intake of obese children in a family-based behavioral weight control program. Int J Obes 14:667-77
Epstein, L H; Valoski, A; Wing, R R et al. (1989) Perception of eating and exercise in children as a function of child and parent weight status. Appetite 12:105-18
Epstein, L H; Wing, R R; Cluss, P et al. (1989) Resting metabolic rate in lean and obese children: relationship to child and parent weight and percent-overweight change. Am J Clin Nutr 49:331-6