Overweight children can benefit greatly from simple household changes such as getting more sleep and watching less TV.
A study that analyzed low-income, minority, children tested the effectiveness of lifestyle "interventions" on body mass index (BMI), a JAMA Networks press release reported.
Low income children are "disproportionately overweight," and researchers are looking for a solution.
"The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which a home-based intervention, compared with a mailed control condition focused on healthful development, resulted in improvements in household routines that may be preventive of childhood overweight and obesity among racial/ethnic minority and low-income families with children aged two to five years," the authors wrote, according to the press release.
The study analyzed 121 families; some were placed in a control group. One-hundred-and-eleven families completed a follow-up assessment.
The "intervention" employed counseling both over the phone and in person, but did not mention the children's weight. Members of the control group simply received healthy-living based materials.
After the counseling, the children saw an increase in sleep of about 0.75 hours a day. They also decreased their TV watching by -1.06 hours a day, and their BMI also went down -0.40.
"In summary, after six months, we found that the Healthy Habits, Happy Homes intervention improved sleep duration and TV viewing behaviors, as well as decreased BMI among racially/ethnically diverse children from low-income households. Future studies with a longer follow-up are needed to determine maintenance of these behavior changes," the authors wrote.
Childhood obesity has more than doubled over the past 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. Now, more than one-third of American children are obese.
Obese children experience a wide range of health consequences such as: pre-diabetes, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, joint pain, and sleep apnea. Obese children are also more likely to experience psychological problems and low self-esteem.
