title: Long-term obesity prevention and the Motivating Adolescents with Technology to CHOOSE Health™ program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Motivating Adolescents with Technology to CHOOSE Health™ (MATCH) intervention integrates lifestyle behavior change curriculum within academic subjects taught in seventh grade. This study assesses obesity prevention in participants into high school.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study compares four- to five-year longitudinal data from a single-site cohort (N=106, 54% retained from 195 participants at baseline; 82% of those still at the school) pre- and postintervention in a rural middle school with high obesity rates with data from the 2006 Child Survey and 2010 Child and Young Adult Surveys from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N=600), which serves as a nationally representative comparison group. Outcome measures include pre- and postchanges in weight category, BMI, BMI z-score, BMI percentile for age and gender, and rates of change per month in BMI measures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At follow-up, change in percent overweight was significantly different between groups, with the MATCH group decreasing (20-12%) and the comparison group increasing (17-19%). Overall, the MATCH group had significantly higher decrease rates in BMI z-scores (p=0.002) and BMI percentile (p=0.01) than the comparison group. Of all adolescents at healthy weight at baseline, 2% from MATCH became overweight after five years, whereas 13% of the comparison group increased to overweight or obese (p=0.02) after four years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite a small sample size and a high-risk setting, at long-term follow-up, a greater proportion of MATCH participants than in the comparison group decreased from overweight to healthy weight or remained at healthy weight. The MATCH results suggest that some proportion of high-risk adolescents can have their growth trajectory follow a healthier path than expected.
authors: 1 Department of Pediatrics, East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine , Greenville, NC.
authors: Suzanne
authors: S
authors: Lazorick
authors: Yancey
authors: Y
authors: Crawford
authors: Anthony
authors: A
authors: Gilbird
authors: Xiangming
authors: X
authors: Fang
authors: Veronica
authors: V
authors: Burr
authors: Valeria
authors: V
authors: Moore
authors: George T
authors: GT
authors: Hardison
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D017195:Adolescent Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005518:Food Preferences; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013997:Time Factors; D015431:Weight Loss