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ENERGY - EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth : Theory and evidence-based development and validation of an intervention scheme to promote healthy nutrition and physical activity.

Projectomschrijving

De toename van overgewicht en obesitas bij de jeugd is alarmerend. Overgewicht is vaak het gevolg van teveel eten en te weinig bewegen. Veel interventies voor het verminderen van overgewicht richten zich op gezonder eten en/of meer bewegen. Maar wat bepaalt of deze interventies werken? Dat wordt onderzocht door VU medisch centrum. De onderzoekers analyseren hoe interventies werken, voor wie en onder welke omstandigheden. Literatuurstudies wijzen uit dat vooral eigen effectiviteit, doelen en zelfregulatie de fysieke activiteit verbeteren. Ook blijkt voorlopig dat interventies beter werken bij meisjes dan bij jongens. Daarnaast hebben de onderzoekers nieuwe gegevens verzameld bij bijna 1000 11-jarigen. Lengte en gewicht zijn gemeten en de kinderen hebben een vragenlijst ingevuld over onder meer bewegen, frisdrankgebruik en de sociale omgeving. Daarnaast wordt de schoolomgeving in kaart gebracht.

Met de gegevens kunnen bestaande en toekomstige interventies worden verbeterd. Het onderzoek is een onderdeel is van het Europese ENERGY project.

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Samenvatting van de aanvraag

The worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity has been steadily increasing, also among children and adolescents, and is reaching alarming epidemic proportions. Most overweight and obesity prevention programmes that have been described in the literature were school-based and have been implemented and studied in the USA. The majority of these studies focus solely on nutrition or on physical activity, and few combine strategies to address both nutrition and physical activity. Moreover, most are not evidence-based or theory-informed. Furthermore, most of these efforts fail to realise family involvement, thus failing to combine the crucial school and family environments in childhood obesity prevention. The new EC funded project ‘ENERGY’ aims to overcome the shortcomings of to date obesity prevention programmes. This ENERGY project will carefully develop an evidence-informed school-based and family involved intervention program and protocol to promote energy balance-related behaviours among adolescents. The project includes systematic reviews on behaviours and determinants, mediation and moderation analyses and will follow the Intervention Mapping procedure. The final goals of this EC-funded project correspond completely with the goals defined within the Third Prevention Program. The VUmc (represented by the EMGO institute for Health and Care Research) is the coordinator and is involved in several work packages (WP) each comprising part of the total work involved in ENERGY. Two of the WPs, i.e. WP5, devoted to the identification of mediators and moderators of existing intervention studies to promote energy-balance behaviors, and WP7, a cross European school-based survey with additional measurement of weight status among 11-year-olds (WP7) fit closely to the goals of Zon MW. WP5 tests, based on secondary analyses of existing intervention evaluation datasets via what pathways intervention schemes have their effects, by analysing whether programs have resulted in changes in the hypothesised mediators, and whether changes in these mediators predict actual behaviour change. Although many interventions presume that effects are realised via changes in mediators, and potential mediators have been assessed in many intervention studies, the mediating pathways are rarely formally tested. To date information about effectiveness of health behaviour change interventions for school children is mostly restricted to whether such interventions are effective per se. Empirical information on mediating pathways and processes will inform new intervention schemes. Information is also lacking on whether effectiveness of existing intervention schemes differs according to subpopulations, for example based on gender, socio-economic status or ethnicity. Such information on moderators of intervention effects is crucial to better tailor and target new intervention schemes to such subpopulations. This information is again essential for the development and selection of new intervention schemes, and WP5 will also test such possible moderators in secondary analyses of existing datasets. For the cross sectional survey of WP7 a sample of 1000 children and one parent will be recruited in each participating country. Measurements will follow standardized protocols and use validated existing questionnaires. Height, weight and waist circumference will be objectively measured. A number of specific energy balance related behaviours (EBRBs) and their most important determinants will be measured by questionnaires informed by existing questionnaires for which key psychometrics have been established. In addition, physical activity will be objectively measured by means of accelerometers in a subsample of 200 Dutch children. Data analyses will reveal prevalence rates for overweight and behavioural correlates of overweight. Furthermore, personal, physical and social environmental correlates of these behaviours and of overweight and BMI will be identified. The ENERGY project will improve our understanding of mediators, moderators and thus working mechanisms of overweight prevention programmes among schoolchildren which will contribute to improvement of future prevention programmes.

Onderwerpen

Kenmerken

Projectnummer:
121020025
Looptijd: 100%
Looptijd: 100 %
2009
2011
Onderdeel van programma:
Projectleider en penvoerder:
Verantwoordelijke organisatie:
Amsterdam UMC - locatie VUmc