A family-oriented intervention program to curtail obesity from five years of age had no effect over no intervention.

AIM: To examine the effect of a family-oriented multidisciplinary intervention program to curtail weight increase in young children with obesity.

METHODS: Children who weighed more than one kilogram above the 97th percentile for height at the pre-school assessment in Oppland County, Norway, were identified. Parents residing in one part of the county were invited to participate in a group-based three-year intervention program while the rest had no interventions. Body mass index (BMI) and family characteristics at entry and measurements at birth were explanatory variables, and change in BMI standard deviation score (SDS) the outcome measure. For the intervention group, outcome was also related to skinfold thicknesses, waist-to-height ratio and physical ability.

RESULTS: The program was completed by 31 families in the intervention and 33 in the control group. At entry, the respective median (interquartile) age was 5.83 (0.36) and 5.74 (0.66) years, and the BMI SDS 2.35 (1.06) and 1.95 (0.49), p=0.012. The median decrease in BMI SDS was 0.19 in both groups. The decline increased with increasing BMI SDS at entry, but irrespective of group. Social or behavioural factor or other anthropometric measures were not associated with outcome.

CONCLUSION: The intervention program had no effect on BMI SDS.