PWM: Family Interventions: Comparing Treatment Formats (2006)
Family Interventions: Comparing Treatment Formats for Pediatric Obesity
There are many ways of involving the family in the treatment of pediatric obesity.
- Intervening only with the parents but not the children (parents as exclusive change agents)
- Intervening with both children and parents in the same setting
- Intervening with both children and parents, but with parents in a different setting than children (e.g., parents meet together and children meet together but separately from each other)
- Intervening with both children and parents, sometimes with the parents and children together, sometimes separately
In conducting the evidence analysis, the overarching question of the work group was:
Which of these treatment formats is most effective in treating pediatric obesity?
The work group did not assume, however, that one format worked best for all age youth. So, the work group differentiated the evidence according to three age groups:
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young children (age 2-5)
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children (6-12)
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adolescents (13-18)
A Framework for Comparison
The workgroup determined that, because of the complexity of interventions for pediatric obesity, they would only examine research that directly compared two or more of these treatment formats. The table below provides an overview of the research the work group identified and the treatment format comparisons examined.
As the table makes clear, the research directly comparing different family treatment formats is both limited and dated. Even though advances in the treatment of pediatric obesity has progressed over the past decade, research comparing different family intervention formats in randomized controlled studies has not been widely published.
Direct Comparisons of Treatment Formats Found in the Research
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Parent only |
Child and parent separate |
Child and parent together |
Child and parent mixed |
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Child only |
Golan M, Crow S. 2004 Golan, Weizman et al 1998 |
Brownell KD, Kelman JH et al 1983 Coates TJ, Killen JD et al 1982 Wadden, T., Stunkard, A. et al 1990 |
Brownell KD, Kelman JH et al 1983 Flodmark, Ohlsson et al 1995 Kirschenbaum, Harris et al 1984 Wadden, T., Stunkard, A. et al 1990 |
Epstein LH, Valoski A, Wing RR, McCurley J. 1994: Study 1 |
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Child and parent together |
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Brownell KD, Kelman JH et al 1983 Wadden, T., Stunkard, A. et al 1990 |
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To see the evidence analysis comparing the different treatment formats, click on one of the topics in the left navigation bar.