doi:10.5402/2012/349384 Clinical Study

Copyright © 2012 A. C. Dubuisson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Efforts are needed to improve the long-term efficiency of childhood obesity treatment. To adapt strategies, the identifi-cation of subgroups of patients with a greater weight loss may be useful. Objective. To analyze the results of a chronic care program for childhood obesity and to determine baseline factors (medical, dietary, and psychosocial) associated with successful weight loss. Subjects and Method. We set up a family-targeted and individually adapted interdisciplinary long-term care program. We reviewed the medical files of 144 children (59 boys and 85 girls; 10.5±3.1 y; mean BMI-z-score: 2.73±0.62) who had≥2 interdisci-plinary visits and≥1-year treatment. Results.Mean treatment length was 2.2 y (1–6.7 y) with 3±1 visits/year. The duration of treat-ment did not depend on the initial weight loss, but this was predictive of the weight change over time. Furthermore any additional weight loss was observed with time whatever the initial weight change. High levels of physical activity and daily water intake from baseline conditions were associated with a greater weight loss after 9 months of intervention. In contrast, a high baseline consump-tion of soft drinks resulted in lower weight loss. Family specific factors such as being a single child or the child’s family support were identified as baseline factors which may contribute to better results. Conclusion. Our study suggests that the benefit of a chroni