title: Multifaceted community-based intervention reduces rate of BMI growth in obese Mexican-origin boys.
abstract: Latino children and youth have some of the highest rates of overweight and obesity. Early intervention is important to prevent future obesity and illness in this population.
  
  
  
  A 3-year, multifaceted intervention was designed to reduce the rate of growth of body mass index (BMI) among Mexican-origin children. Two communities in California's agricultural Central Valley were targeted for intervention and comparison. To assess impact, anthropometric measures of participating children (N = 422) were collected and analysed at baseline and after 1 year of intervention.
  
  
  
  After 1 year of intervention, triceps skin-fold thickness in girls showed a significant decrease in unadjusted analysis between children in the two communities. In multivariate analysis, a reduction in BMI growth was seen among obese boys in the intervention community (ß-coefficient = -1.94, P = 0.05). Obese boys in the intervention community also had a smaller increase in waist circumference (ß-coefficient = -5.2, P = 0.04) than the comparison community.
  
  
  
  These early findings indicate the intervention's effectiveness for preventing BMI growth among obese boys. Longitudinal follow-up is needed to determine the sustainability of results and whether similar results extend to obese girls and overweight boys or girls.
authors.affiliation: UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Foods for Health Institute, Food Science & Technology Department, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.affiliation: Center for Transnational Health, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: I E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Tseregounis
authors.affiliation: Center for Transnational Health, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: Center for Transnational Health, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gomez-Camacho
authors.affiliation: Center for Transnational Health, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de la Torre
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans; D065228:Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D055105:Waist Circumference; D061217:Weight Reduction Programs / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Childhood obesity; Mexican-origin communities; multifaceted community-based intervention; rural area communities