Getting Kids To Exercise Not Enough To Stop Childhood Obesity, Study Finds

Filed under: Study — @ October 9, 2006

Lead researcher Dr. John J. Reilly from the Division of Developmental Medicine at the University of Glasgow along with his fellow researchers wanted to look at the effectiveness of physical activity on the prevention of childhood obesity in a randomized controlled trial. Specifically, they were looking at the reduction in the body mass index (BMI) of preschool-age children over a one-year period.

The research included 545 children from 36 preschools in Glasgow, Scotland with a mean age of 4.2 years old when the study began. They were required to participate in three 30-minute exercise sessions each week in the first six months of the study as well as health education courses in the home to foster increased physical activity among the young study participants outside of school rather than doing such slothful activities such as watching television, playing video games, or any other non-exercise activities.

The results? NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECT WAS MADE ON BMI AFTER SIX MONTHS AND TWELVE MONTHS! The control group and study group were virtually the same with a standard deviation score for BMI at 0.46 after six month and 0.41 after twelve months. The control group BMI was exactly the same at 0.43 after six and twelve months.

Click here to learn more about what the researchers recommend in addition to exercise to help prevent any further increases in childhood obesity.