Family-based treatment for obesity in tweens: a three-year longitudinal follow-up study

Children's increasing obesity worldwide is creating negative health and socioeconomic drawbacks. To find the determinants of obesity, this research looked at the influence of (1) media usage; (2) advertising messages/brand recognition; and (3) communication or lack of communication between parents and their children on obesity and food-related Purchase Influence Attempts (PIAs) of tweens. A 3-year longitudinal follow-up study was conducted with 68 families whose children were either obese or at risk of becoming obese. The subjects were divided into the following four groups: (1) media amount was controlled; (2) brand recognition was controlled; (3) communication channel of family members was controlled; and (4) all three conditions were controlled. Our results showed significant weight-loss and reduction in PIAs in all groups except in group 2 (brand recognition controlled). This work shows the importance of changing habits using behavioural treatment and the importance of communication among family members on obesity prevention.