title: Slow and steady: readiness, pretreatment weekly strengthening activity, and pediatric weight management program completion.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pediatric weight management programs have substantial attrition rates, which have led to recommendations to assess readiness prior to enrollment. Both pretreatment readiness scales and behaviors, such as exercise, have been theorized to predict subsequent program completion. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of self-reported pretreatment exercise in adolescents on completion of a pediatric weight management program and to explore the predictive ability of standard readiness scales.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 146 obese (BMI≥95(th) percentile) pediatric (ages 11-18) participants joined a 6-month multidisciplinary weight management program between March, 2007, and July, 2010. Completers were compared retrospectively to noncompleters on demographic, readiness, and pretreatment exercise practices from clinic-developed intake questionnaires using univariate analyses. Regression analyses specified the degree to which these variables predicted program completion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 6-month completion rate was 53%. There was no relationship between self-reported readiness and program completion. Self-reported pretreatment weekly strengthening activity (SA) was significantly associated with program completion, compared to those who performed SA either never [univariate odds ratio (OR) 3.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.51-6.68, p=0.002; multivariate OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.06-5.58, p=0.036] or daily (univariate OR 4.90, 95% CI 1.74-13.77, p=0.002; multivariate OR 4.69, 95% CI 1.45-15.14, p=0.010). No relationship was found between other forms of exercise and program completion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-reported pretreatment weekly SA, but not standard readiness scales, predicted pediatric weight management program completion.
authors: University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors: Daniel E
authors: DE
authors: Ehrmann
authors: Bethany J
authors: BJ
authors: Sallinen
authors: Heidi B
authors: HB
authors: IglayReger
authors: Paul M
authors: PM
authors: Gordon
authors: Susan J
authors: SJ
authors: Woolford
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D015431:Weight Loss; D061217:Weight Reduction Programs