Effect of Nutrition Education and Exercise Intervention on Physical and Dietary Patterns of Some Obese Children

Kim, Myoung Sook; Choi, Mee Sook; Kim, Ki Nam

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the effects of 16-week nutrition education and exercise intervention run by a public health center on the physical activities and dietary patterns of obese children at the before, after, and after one month point. After the program, the obese index of the obese children dropped by 5.9% from 38.4% to 32.5%. One month after the end of the program, their obese index increased by 1.4% to 33.9% (p < 0.001). The obese children's hours of walking of physical activities increased to 2.6 hours from 1.2 hours after the program and remained at the 2.6 hours range one month after the end of the program (p < 0.01). The total scores of their food habits increased to 10.4 points from 9.1 points after the program and 10.3 points one month after the end of the program with significant differences (p < 0.01). The total scores of their eating behavior made a significant increase to 6.5 points from 5.3 points after the program and then dropped to 5.9 points one month after the end of the program (p < 0.05). As for changes to their dietary pattern scores according to the obese index, only the food habits scores showed significant main effects of term (p < 0.05). According to these results, there is still a need to develop proper programs to help them increase regular exercise, improve their physical activities by cutting down time with TV, computer, Internet, and video games, and enhance their nutritional knowledge and to provide them with ongoing management and guidance until the improved food habits and eating behavior become part of their habits.