title: Reducing variety enhances effectiveness of family-based treatment for pediatric obesity.
abstract: Basic research has shown that increasing variety increases energy intake, and repeated consumption of the same food increases habituation to those foods and reduces consumption. Twenty-four families with overweight/obese 8-12 year-old children and overweight/obese parents were randomly assigned to 6months of usual family based treatment (FBT) or FBT plus reduced variety of high energy-dense foods (FBT+Variety). Intention to treat mixed model ANOVA showed between group differences in child percent overweight (FBT+Variety-15.4% vs. FBT-8.9%, p=0.017) and parent BMI (FBT+Variety-3.7kg/m(2) vs. FBT-2.3kg/m(2); p=0.017). Positive relationships were observed between child zBMI and parent BMI changes (r=0.51, p=0.018), and between reductions in food variety of high energy-dense foods and reductions in child zBMI (r=0.54, p=0.02) and parent BMI (r=0.45, p=0.08). These pilot data suggest that reducing the variety of high energy dense foods and repeating meals within the context of FBT resulted in improved child and parent weight changes at six months. This represents easy to implement changes that reduce choice and may reduce response burden on families. Reducing variety may be a complement to standard FBT that enhances weight loss. Long term studies are needed to assess maintenance of these changes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, United States. Electronic address: LHENET@acsu.buffalo.edu.
authors.forename: Leonard H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, United States.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kilanowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, United States.
authors.forename: Rocco A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Paluch
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, University at Tennessee, United States.
authors.forename: Hollie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Raynor
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, United States.
authors.forename: Tinuke Oluyomi
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Daniel
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002149:Energy Intake; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005502:Food / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000628:therapy; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000628:therapy*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Habituation; Pediatric obesity; Variety