SynthesisThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2017
The dose of behavioral interventions to prevent and treat childhood obesity: a systematic review and meta-regression.
Synthesis in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01316653 (Growing Right Onto Wellness), which is not on this map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Growing Right Onto Wellness (GROW): Changing Early Childhood Body Mass Index (BMI) Trajectories
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Public health interventions for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents: a rapid review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Child Obesity Prevention From Pregnancy: Long-Term Follow-Up of the Starting Early Program Trial.Pediatrics · 2025Trial
- A family-based behavioral group obesity randomized control feasibility trial across a clinical trials network: a focus on contact hours.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2025Trial
- Preliminary Support for the Use of Motivational Interviewing to Improve Parent/Adult Caregiver Behavior for Obesity and Cancer Prevention.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Mapping intervention components from a randomized controlled trial to scale-up of an early life nutrition and movement intervention: The INFANT program.Frontiers in public health · 2022Trial
- Prenatal and Pediatric Primary Care-Based Child Obesity Prevention Program: A Randomized Trial.Pediatrics · 2020Trial
- Evaluating dose delivered of a behavioral intervention for childhood obesity prevention: a secondary analysis.BMC public health · 2020Trial
- Competency-Based Approaches to Community Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Childhood Obesity among Latino Preschool-Aged Children.Childhood obesity (Print) · 2019Trial
- The impact of a multilevel childhood obesity prevention intervention on healthful food acquisition, preparation, and fruit and vegetable consumption on African-American adult caregivers.Public health nutrition · 2019Trial
- A multilevel, multicomponent childhood obesity prevention group-randomized controlled trial improves healthier food purchasing and reduces sweet-snack consumption among low-income African-American youth.Nutrition journal · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Early-life adversity before age 5 is associated with reduced cardiometabolic health characterized by increased arterial stiffness and inflammation in adolescence.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Sustaining Heart-Healthy Habits in Youth: A 15-Year Review of the SI! Program.Current cardiology reports · 2026Review
- Family-Based Digital Lifestyle Intervention for Hispanic Adolescents and Their Parents: Iterative Co-Design and Development Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Article
- Rethinking how and when to report descriptions of behavior change content within interventions: a case study of an ongoing physical activity trial (ready steady 3.0).Translational behavioral medicine · 2023Article
- Editorial: Behavior change approaches to improve children and families' dietary intake and 24h movement behaviors.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- A multimodal approach to improve asthmatic adolescents' self-efficacy in Taiwan.International health · 2022Article
- Weather and Household Predictors of Childhood Obesity Treatment Attendance in Low-Income Urban Families.Clinical pediatrics · 2022Article
- Preventing Childhood Obesity in Primary Schools: A Realist Review from UK Perspective.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA better understanding of the optimal "dose" of behavioral interventions to affect change in weight-related outcomes is a critical topic for childhood obesity intervention research. The objective of this review was to quantify the relationship between dose and outcome in behavioral trials targeting childhood obesity to guide future intervention development.
methodsA systematic review and meta-regression included randomized controlled trials published between 1990 and June 2017 that tested a behavioral intervention for obesity among children 2-18 years old. Searches were conducted among PubMed (Web-based), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (EBSCO platform), PsycINFO (Ovid platform) and EMBASE (Ovid Platform). Two coders independently reviewed and abstracted each included study. Dose was extracted as intended intervention duration, number of sessions, and length of sessions. Standardized effect sizes were calculated from change in weight-related outcome (e.g., BMI-Z score).
resultsOf the 258 studies identified, 133 had sufficient data to be included in the meta-regression. Average intended total contact (# sessions x length of sessions) was 27.7 (SD 32.2) hours and average duration was 26.0 (SD 23.4) weeks. When controlling for study covariates, a random-effects meta-regression revealed no significant association between contact hours, intended duration or their interaction and effect size.
conclusionsThis systematic review identified wide variation in the dose of behavioral interventions to prevent and treat pediatric obesity, but was unable to detect a clear relationship between dose and weight-related outcomes. There is insufficient evidence to provide quantitative guidance for future intervention development. One limitation of this review was the ability to uniformly quantify dose due to a wide range of reporting strategies. Future trials should report dose intended, delivered, and received to facilitate quantitative evaluation of optimal dose. TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (Registration # CRD42016036124 ).
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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.