Efficacy of walking as a potential strategy to treat childhood obesity in the clinical setting.

BACKGROUND

Walking is a common intervention for treating obesity in adults, but data on the effectiveness of walking for childhood obesity are limited. We therefore investigated the effectiveness of walking in the treatment of childhood obesity and the factors that make its effect stronger.

METHODS

Participants who visited our clinic for obesity were instructed to walk at least 10,000 steps on holidays and given lifestyle guidance at the first visit. CV risk factors and blood chemistry were examined at every visit. The number of steps walked on holidays between each visit was also assessed. We defined successful treatment as a final decrease in relative body weight (RBW) of ≥8.6% in this study. The predictors of final RBW reduction and factors of dropout were examined with a focus on the number of holiday steps.

RESULTS

The final number of participants was 131 (74 boys and 57 girls; mean age 10.1 ± 2.4 years). The mean reduction in RBW was 14.7 ± 12.8% (p < 0.001). Predictors of final RBW reduction were the level of RBW reduction from the first to the second visits (p = 0.01) and the mean number of steps on holiday between the second and the third visits (p = 0.04). Fewer steps on holiday between the first and the second visits were a predictor of dropout (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

This study confirmed the effectiveness of lifestyle modification, particularly walking. Furthermore, the establishment of walking habits and reduction in RBW early in the treatment were found to be important.