Trial reportInternational journal of obesity (2005)2017
An educational intervention to promote healthy lifestyles in preschool children: a cluster-RCT.
Trial report in International journal of obesity (2005), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 16 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 16 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to Reduce Screen Time in Preschool-Aged Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Assessing the effectiveness of healthy weight interventions in the early years of childhood: a systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence from high-income countries.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Pooled it
- Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 2 to 4 years old.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Gamified Health Promotion in Schools: The Integration of Neuropsychological Aspects and CBT-A Systematic Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Pooled it
- Nutritional counseling in childhood and adolescence: a systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Assessing the scalability of healthy eating interventions within the early childhood education and care setting: secondary analysis of a Cochrane systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Policy, system, and environmental interventions addressing obesity and diet-related outcomes in early childhood education settings: A systematic review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2023Pooled it
- Measurement of screen time among young children aged 0-6 years: A systematic review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of the implementation of obesity prevention interventions in early childcare and education settings using the RE-AIM framework.Translational behavioral medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Interventions for preventing obesity in children.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Environmental interventions to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and their effects on health.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Effectiveness of a Social-Media-Based Diet and Physical Activity Programme for Fathers in Japan: A Randomised Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Bayesian Response-Adaptive Randomization for Cluster Randomized Controlled Trials.Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- From preschool to policy: A scoping review of recommended interventions for a systems approach to improve dietary intake in early childhood.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivePromoting four healthy behaviours among preschool children:⩾4 servings of fruit and vegetables/day, ⩾2 h/day of active play, ⩽1 h per day of TV-watching and 0 sugar sweetened beverages/day.
methodsWe conducted a c-RCT on 425 3-year-old children at 16 childcare centres based in Cesena, Italy. We randomly allocated eight childcare centres (199 children) to the intervention group and eight childcare centres (226 children) to the control group. All the randomized childcare centres completed our study protocol. Parents recorded their children's target behaviours at home over 3 Saturdays, at baseline and at follow-up. Then trained nurses measured children's weight and height. We conducted a 6-month-long intervention trial in local health care centres where nurses and primary care pediatricians, respectively, conducted two subsequent motivational interviews with parents to encourage children's healthy behaviours at home. At the same time, teachers involved children in learning experiences about healthy behaviours. Our primary outcome is a children's combined health behaviour score (CHBS) at home. Our secondary outcomes measure the BMI z-score and the percentage of children that show a BMI trajectory crossing upward. After collecting the CHBS and BMI data at baseline as well as at 1- and 2-year follow-ups, we performed an Intent-to-Treat (ITT) analysis.
resultsAfter 2 years from baseline, 48.4% of intervention group children showed a low-risk CHBS in comparison with 28.0% of control group children. A multilevel analysis showed that they were by far more likely to achieve low-risk scores (adjusted OR: 3.41; 95% CI: 1.48-7.88; P=0.004). Our BMI outcomes showed no significant difference between groups.
conclusionsA multidimensional educational intervention, which consists of motivational interviews with parents and teacher-led learning experiences for children, improved preschool children's CHBS in the long term without influencing the outcomes of BMI z-score and BMI increase.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.