title: Pilot of "Families for Health": community-based family intervention for obesity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and evaluate "Families for Health", a new community based family intervention for childhood obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Programme development, pilot study and evaluation using intention-to-treat analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Coventry, England.
  
  
  METHODS
  27 overweight or obese children aged 7-13 years (18 girls, 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families.
  
  
  METHODS
  Families for Health is a 12-week programme with parallel groups for parents and children, addressing parenting, lifestyle change and social and emotional development.
  
  
  METHODS
  Change in baseline BMI z score at the end of the programme (3 months) and 9-month follow-up. Attendance, drop-out, parents' perception of the programme, child's quality of life and self-esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships and lifestyle changes were also measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Attendance rate was 62%, with 18 of the 27 (67%) children completing the programme. For the 22 children with follow-up data (including four who dropped out), BMI z score was reduced by -0.18 (95% CI -0.30 to -0.05) at 3 months and -0.21 (-0.35 to -0.07) at 9 months. Statistically significant improvements were observed in children's quality of life and lifestyle (reduced sedentary behaviour, increased steps and reduced exposure to unhealthy foods), child-parent relationships and parents' mental health. Fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in moderate/vigorous exercise and children's self-esteem did not change significantly. Topics on parenting skills, activity and food were rated as helpful and used with confidence by most parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Families for Health is a promising new childhood obesity intervention. Definitive evaluation of its clinical effectiveness by randomised controlled trial is now required.
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. W.Robertson@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Friede
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blissett
authors.forename: M C J
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Rudolf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wallis
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stewart-Brown
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D004739:England; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D018579:Patient Selection; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors