Challenge!, a Health Promotion/ Obesity Prevention Program for Teens

University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Overweight

Treatments: Behavioral: Challenge!

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00746083

R40MC00241, M01 RR16500

H-21033

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of Challenge! is to determine if adolescents enrolled in a health promotion/ obesity prevention program will have a healthier BMI-for-age z-score and body composition (body fat %), will consume a healthier diet, and engage in higher levels of physical activity compared to those that did not receive the intervention over time.

Full description

Pediatric overweight is a major public health problem in the US, with the prevalence of overweight among children of all ages increasing dramatically over the past several decades. Interventions aimed at reducing the increased weight gain during adolescence have produced mixed results.

Challenge! is a randomized controlled trial for health promotion/ obesity prevention targeting low-income, urban, African American adolescents. Healthy adolescents were recruited from an urban medical center and from local middle schools. Weight status was not part of the inclusion criteria.

The intervention was home- and community-based and delivered one-on-one to each adolescent by a college-age "personal trainer". The intervention focused on goal-setting, consuming a healthy diet (increase fruits, vegetables, and water, and decrease high-fat snack and convenience foods), and increasing physical activity. We hypothesized that the teens enrolled in the intervention would have a healthier BMI-for-age z-score and a healthier body composition (body fat %) compared to those that did not receive the intervention over time. Additionally, we hypothesized that those enrolled in the intervention would consume healthier diets and have higher levels of physical activity compared to those that did not receive the intervention over time.

Enrollment: 235 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 16 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Ages 11-16, willing to participate in a randomized controlled trial for health promotion

Exclusion criteria

• Outside of age range

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

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235 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Challenge!

Control group

No Intervention group