Transforming Young Lives: A Comprehensive Exploration of Lifestyle Interventions for Tackling Childhood Obesity

Behavior modification lifestyle strategies are essential in the management of obesity among children and adolescents. This comprehensive review examines the most effective behavior modification lifestyle strategies for addressing overweight and obesity in young individuals. A literature search focused on dietary practices, physical exercise, and behavioral interventions for treating obesity in individuals aged 0-19 was performed in databases including the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (OVID), EMBASE, and ClinicalTrials.gov. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses containing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English from June 2016 to November 2022 were collected to highlight recent developments. The obesity-related outcomes measured included body weight, body mass index (BMI), BMI z-score, and body fat percentage, among others. The review identified 28 relevant articles: four addressed dietary interventions; five focused on physical activity (exercise training); one considered sedentary behaviors; and 18 examined multi-faceted behavior modification lifestyle interventions, incorporating three that utilized gaming; three involving eHealth, mobile health (mHealth), or telehealth approaches, with one from each category; and two exploring motivational interviewing. The multi-component behavior modification lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing obesity in children and adolescents demonstrated moderate effects, with low-quality evidence for dietary interventions and high-quality evidence for exercise training, both regarding weight or BMI reduction. Long-term intensive multi-component behavioral strategies that involved parental participation revealed superior outcomes.

Keywords:

behavior modification intervention; children and adolescents; overweight; randomized controlled trial; systematic examination.