Development and evaluation of the lifestyle intervention 'Obeldicks light' for overweight children and adolescents

Aim: Specific interventions for overweight but not obese children have not been established yet. Therefore, we developed the methods, materials, and an evaluation protocol for a lifestyle intervention for overweight children based on an intervention for obese children. Subjects and methods: The 1-year lifestyle intervention "Obeldicks" for obese children, compromised of physical activity plans, nutritional education, and behavioural counselling, including individual psychological care for both children and their parents, was shortened, reducing the amount of exercise training and individual counselling by about 50%, forming a 6-month intervention ("Obeldicks light"). Results: The evaluation protocol was based on guidelines and validated instruments with available German healthy normal-weight controls. As the ideal study design, a multicentre randomised controlled trail with the primary outcome change of weight status was identified. As secondary outcomes, improvement of body composition (skinfold thickness, bioimpedance analysis), cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, waist circumference), quality of life, dietary habits, eating, exercise, and sedentary behaviour were established. Potential influencing factors for treatment success were identified, such as parental BMI, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. All proposed instruments were validated in the German representative KiGGS and DONALD study. Conclusions: Adapting a well-established program for obese children to overweight children is an easy way to create a lifestyle intervention for overweight children. Our study protocol using instruments validated in German normal weight cohorts allows evaluating this new intervention.