Seolhye Kim1, Eunju Sung2, Sunmi Yoo3
1
Total Healthcare Center, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
2
Department of Family Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine,
Seoul, Korea
3
Department of Family Medicine, Haeundae-Paik Hospital, Inje University School of Medicine, Busan, Korea
Background: Pediatric obesity is an important global issue in public health. However, previous efforts for childhood obesity prevention have sporadically been implemented in Korea, neither evidence-based nor with proper
evaluation. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of an effective intervention for prevention of pediatric
obesity by reviewing previous systematic reviews and Meta-analyses.
Methods: PubMed was searched for articles published frombetween January 2005 to November 2015.
Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) articles published in English; (2) child and/or adolescents (between 2 and
18 years of age) as subjects; and (3) systematic reviews or meta-analyses concerning the preventive intervention of pediatric/adolescent obesity. Each study was evaluated via the Assessment of Multiple Systematic
Reviews for quality assessment. We conducted a quantitative analysis to evaluate the implications, strengths,
and limitations of each study.
Results: Our final analysis included 35 articles, of which 15 were systematic reviews and 20 were meta-analyses.
Among these, 24 studies (69%) advocated the efficacy of preventive intervention for pediatric obesity.
Multidimensional approach including diet, exercise, and environmental factors conducted in schools with a parent and community involvement wasis more effective at preventing obesity. The efficacy of intervention varied
depending on the age, sex, region, and socioeconomic characteristics of participantssubjects.
Conclusions: Preventive intervention of pediatric obesity demonstrated smallminor improvements in body
mass index and had positive effects on behavioral and clinical variables, which are associated with obesity. For
the efficient prevention of pediatric obesity, it is necessary to consider efforts for developing various intervention
programs, with active as well as the participation of school, family, and social community groups.
Korean J Health Promot 2016;16(4):231-250
Keywords: Obesity, Prevention and control, Review, Child, Adolescent |