Family-based Behavioral Treatment Shows Promising Results in Weight Loss

The purpose of family-based behavioral treatment of childhood obesity (FABO) is to design and evaluate the obese children's family and social support networks so that the children can perform weight loss mechanisms.

The FABO study shows that family-based behavioral therapy offered at an outpatient clinic significantly improves weight-related effects (weight loss) than treatment in children 6 to 18 years of age with severe obesity. The FABO study was conducted at the Outpatient Clinic, Hockland University Hospital and represents the first attempt to provide family-based behavioral therapy within the Norwegian public health system.

‘The results show that family-based therapy (FABO study) offers significantly more weight loss than conventional therapy.’

Researchers from the Bergen Pediatric Obesity Research Group along with a research team from the University of Washington that developed the treatment transformed the treatment previously provided by research clinics into a routine health system, with the optimistic effects of weight loss in participating children who are with obesity. The results show that family-based therapy (FABO study) offers significantly more weight loss than conventional therapy, says Hanna Flakoy Skjakodegard, a researcher in the UiB Department of Medical Sciences.

The purpose of weight loss is to reduce the risk of comorbidities such as diabetes or other metabolic diseases. Behavioral therapy includes both school and leisure activities that have an impact on the effects of obesity and has an intensive treatment program of 17 sessions over 6 months for obese children.

The treatment model of the FABO study will now be incorporated into the eBATTLE Obesity study, a Norwegian multicenter study examining the effects of family-based behavioral therapy in conjunction with pharmacological treatment.

Source: Medindia