Category: Behavior

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and The University of Minnesota indicates that a parent's weight change is a key contributor to the success of a child's weight loss in family-based treatment of childhood obesity. The results were just published in the advanced online edition of the journal Obesity.

"We looked at things such as parenting skills and styles, or changing the home food environment, and how they impacted a child's weight," said Kerri N. Boutelle, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at UC San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. "The number one way in which parents can help an obese child lose weight? Lose weight themselves. In this study, it was the most important predictor of child weight loss."

Recent data suggests that 31 percent of children in the United States are overweight or obese, or between four and five million children. Current treatment programs generally require participation by both parents and children in a plan that combines nutrition education and exercise with behavior therapy techniques.

"Parents are the most significant people in a child's environment, serving as the first and most important teachers," said Boutelle "They play a significant role in any weight-loss program for children, and this study confirms the importance of their example in establishing healthy eating and exercise behaviors for their kids."

The researchers looked at eighty parent-child groups with an 8 to 12-year-old overweight or obese child, who participated in a parent-only or parent + child treatment program for five months.

The study focused on evaluating the impact of three types of parenting skills taught in family-based behavioral treatment for childhood obesity, and the impact of each on the child's body weight: the parent modeling behaviors to promote their own weight loss, changes in home food environment, and parenting style and techniques (for example, a parent's ability to help limit the child's eating behavior, encouraging the child and participating in program activities).

Consistent with previously published research, parent BMI change was the only significant predictor of child's weight loss.

The researchers concluded that clinicians should focus on encouraging parents to lose weight to help their overweight or obese child in weight management.

A team of researchers led by Michael H. Antoni, director of the University of Miami's Center for Psycho-Oncology Research, has shown that a stress management program tailored to women with breast cancer can alter tumor-promoting processes at the molecular level. The new study, recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, is one of the first to link psychological intervention with genetic expression in cancer patients.

In the study, researchers found that a group-based intervention called Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM) can have an effect on which genes in the cells of the immune system are turned on and off and in ways that may facilitate better recovery during treatment for breast cancer.

"For the women in the CBSM groups, there was better psychological adaptation to the whole process of going through treatment for breast cancer and there were physiological changes that indicated that the women were recovering better," said Antoni, professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and program leader of biobehavioral oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. "The results suggest that the stress management intervention mitigates the influence of the stress of cancer treatment and promotes recovery over the first year."

Previous research has shown that during times of adversity, our nervous and endocrine systems send signals to the immune system, which defends us from disease. In response, our body activates specific genes inside immune cells called white blood cells or leukocytes, Antoni explains.

"For the women who participated in the intervention groups, the genes that signal the production of molecules associated with a healthy immune response, such as type I interferon, were up-regulated — meaning they were producing more of these substances compared with levels seen in the control group," Antoni said. "At the same time, the genes responsible for the production of substances involved in cancer progression, such as pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and matrix metalloproteinases were down-regulated."

CBSM is a ten-week group-based program developed at UM that combines relaxation, imagery, and deep breathing, along with cognitive behavior therapy, which is designed to help patients reduce bodily tension, change the way they deal with intrusive stressful thoughts, decrease negative moods, and improve their interpersonal communication skills. In the study, 79 women undergoing primary treatment for stage III breast cancer were randomized into a ten-week CBSM program or a psychoeducational control group in the weeks following surgery. Six-month and 12-month follow-up assessments were conducted.

"You essentially have this timeframe in a woman's life where she is getting diagnosed with breast cancer, followed by surgery, then chemotherapy or radiation, and it's very stressful," Antoni said. "This can be an emotionally and physically exhausting period offering little opportunity for recovery. If stress affects the immune system in a negative way, then their recovery could be slowed down, and those patients taking longer to recover may be at risk for poorer health outcomes. Conversely, if stress management intervention can reduce the impact of stress on the immune system, then recovery may be hastened."

The research team plans to follow the women in this cohort to see if CBSM intervention and its effects on leukocyte gene expression are predictive of recurrence and/or long-term health outcomes.

The National Cancer Institute and The Pap Corps, Champions for Cancer Research funded the study.

Mothers' exposure during pregnancy to a class of air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can lead to behavioral problems in their children. PAH are released to air during incomplete combustion of fossil fuel such as diesel, gasoline, coal, and other organic material.

The study is the first report of associations between child attentional and behavioral problems among school‐age children and two complementary measures of prenatal PAH exposure: monitored air concentrations of PAH and a PAH-specific biomarker of exposure measured in maternal and umbilical cord blood. The paper, "Prenatal Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) Exposure and Child Behavior at age 6-7," recently published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, adds to rising concerns about the risks associated with exposures to air pollution during pregnancy.

The study followed the children of 253 non‐smoking inner‐city women who gave birth between 1999 and 2006. Researchers led by Frederica Perera, DrPH, director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, measured two complementary indicators of PAH exposure. One indicator was the PAH concentration in air from personal air sampling which took place during the third trimester of pregnancy. The other was a specific biological marker of exposure– PAH-DNA adducts measured in maternal blood and newborn umbilical cord blood. When inhaled by the mother during pregnancy, PAH can be transferred across the placenta and bind to the DNA of the fetus, forming "adducts" in blood and other tissues and providing a biologic measure of pollutant exposure.

Mothers completed a detailed assessment of their child's behavior (including whether the children experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression, or attention problems. High prenatal PAH exposure, whether characterized by personal air monitoring or maternal and newborn cord adducts, was significantly associated with symptoms of Anxious/Depressed and Attention Problems.

In urban air, traffic emissions are a dominant source of the pollutants measured in the study. Illustrating widespread exposure to these pollutants, 100% of the mothers in the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health NYC cohort had detectable levels of PAH in prenatal personal air samples, although levels varied widely. The authors accounted for other sources of PAH such as environmental tobacco smoke and diet in their analyses. None of the mothers in the study were smokers.

"This study provides evidence that environmental levels of PAH encountered in NYC air can adversely affect child behavior. The results are of concern because attention problems and anxiety and depression have been shown to affect peer relationships and academic performance," said Dr. Perera, the study's lead author.

The study was conducted in collaboration with members of the Columbia research team including, Dr. Deliang Tang, Dr. Shuang Wang, Julia Vishnevetsky, Bingzhi Zhang, Diurka Diaz, David Camann, and Dr. Virginia Rauh.

The work was supported by funding provided by NIEHS, the EPA and private foundations.

Like humans, dogs engage in riskier behaviors when their self-control is depleted.

How do dogs behave when their ability to exert self-control is compromised? Are they more likely to approach dangerous situations or stay well away? According to a new study by Holly Miller, from the University of Lille Nord de France, and colleagues, dogs that have 'run out' of self-control make more impulsive decisions that put them in harm's way. The work was just published online in Springer's Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

To avoid danger, people often exert self-control over their behavior. When they do not and they behave more impulsively, they may unintentionally put themselves in dangerous situations e.g. pedestrians jaywalk across busy streets, children stick objects into electrical outlets, and teenagers join dangerous gangs. Miller and colleagues' work is the first to demonstrate that this phenomenon of 'self-control depletion' also has significant behavioral implications in animals: mentally fatigued dogs do not think straight and are more likely to inadvertently subject themselves to risks that may result in physical harm.

The researchers recruited ten dogs and trained them to sit still for ten minutes, thereby exerting self-control; or not, by putting them in a cage where they were free to move around. Afterwards, the dogs were walked into a room in which a barking, growling dog was caged. The dogs spent a total of four minutes in the room but were free to choose where in the room they spent their time. Although approaching the other dog was the natural response for the dogs, it was also the riskier choice.

Those dogs who had exerted self-control by sitting still beforehand spent more time in close proximity to the aggressive dog compared with those dogs who had not exerted self-control (i.e. the caged dogs) — 59 percent compared to 42 percent. These results show that initial self-control exertion results in riskier and more impulsive decision making by dogs.

Miller and team conclude: "The present research provides evidence that the phenomenon of self-control depletion, once believed to be uniquely human, can be found in dogs. Using work in animals may provide a greater insight into the physiological and neurobiological processes that affect self-control."

 A new analysis has found that breast cancer survivors may experience problems with certain mental abilities several years after treatment, regardless of whether they were treated with chemotherapy plus radiation or radiation only. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that there may be common and treatment-specific ways that cancer therapies negatively affect cancer survivors' mental abilities.

Previous research suggests that chemotherapy can cause problems with memory and concentration in breast cancer survivors. To compare the effects of different types of cancer treatment on such mental abilities, Paul Jacobsen, PhD, of the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, and his colleagues examined 62 breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy plus radiation, 67 patients treated with radiation only, and 184 women with no history of cancer. Study participants completed neuropsychological assessments six months after completing treatment and again 36 months later, which is further out from the end of treatment than most previous studies of this type.

The study confirmed that chemotherapy can cause cognitive problems in breast cancer survivors that persist for three years after they finish treatment. In addition, the investigators found that breast cancer survivors who had been treated with radiation (and not chemotherapy) often experienced problems similar to those in breast cancer survivors treated with both chemotherapy and radiation. They did not find that hormonal therapy (such as tamoxifen) caused cognitive difficulties.

"These findings suggest that the problems some breast cancer survivors have with their mental abilities are not due just to the administration of chemotherapy," said Dr. Jacobsen. "Our findings also provide a more complete picture of the impact of cancer treatment on mental abilities than studies that did not follow patients as long or look at mental abilities in breast cancer survivors who had not been treated with chemotherapy," he added.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kristin M. Phillips, Heather S. Jim, Brent J. Small, Christine Laronga, Michael A. Andrykowski, Paul B. Jacobsen. Cognitive functioning after cancer treatment. Cancer, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/cncr.26432

— In a follow-up study, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have found that patients who receive chemotherapy for breast cancer might experience prolonged fatigue years after their therapy. The new study, published in the American Cancer Society's current issue of Cancer, is a follow-up to a study on fatigue and chemotherapy and radiotherapy for breast cancer Moffitt researchers published in Cancer in 2007.

"Fatigue is among the most common symptoms reported by women who are treated for breast cancer," said study corresponding author Paul B. Jacobsen, Ph.D., program leader for Health Outcomes and Behavior at Moffitt.

The 2007 study found that immediately following treatment fatigue was greater in women who had received chemotherapy than in patient groups composed of women who had received both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, radiotherapy alone, or in groups with no cancer history. Six months after treatment, women in the chemotherapy alone group reported more fatigue than the combination therapy group, the radiotherapy group, or the non-cancer group.

"On the basis of our 2007 study and the results of other studies, we hypothesized that fatigue in the group receiving chemotherapy would diminish over a three-year follow-up period, yet possibly remain higher than fatigue levels for women who had received radiation, combination therapy, or those with no history of cancer," explained Jacobsen.

The recently published follow-up study was composed of 205 patients who had received chemotherapy compared with 193 women in a control group with no history of cancer. The controls were within five years of age of the cancer patients and lived in the same zip codes as their partner cancer patients. The average age for both groups was 55. Fatigue levels were measured at six months and 42 months.

Their new findings, however, contradicted the expectation that patients receiving chemotherapy would, overtime, experience less fatigue and eventually see their fatigue levels diminish to equal the levels of women in the other two groups.

"Contrary to our expectations, fatigue did not diminish over time for patients in the chemotherapy group," said Jacobsen, who studies the behavioral and psychosocial aspects of cancer, cancer treatment, outcomes, and cancer survivorship. "In some cases, fatigue worsened, and that finding is not consistent with prior research."

Among the possible factors influencing the long-term or worsening fatigue included the potential for weight gain, common among patients who receive chemotherapy and who, according to the researchers, rarely return to their pre-treatment weight.

One variable affecting prolonged or worsening fatigue might involve supportive care, suggested the researchers.

"This finding has important implications for patient education and for fatigue monitoring during follow-up," concluded Jacobsen. "Our results should inform patient education efforts when patients receiving chemotherapy are often told that their fatigue will gradually diminish following treatment. Health care providers may want to communicate to their patients who have received chemotherapy that their fatigue may not improve over time and may worsen."

The researchers concluded that patients should be informed about interventions known to be effective against fatigue post-treatment, such as exercise and cognitive behavior therapy.

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Journal Reference:

1. Martine M. Goedendorp, Michael A. Andrykowski, Kristine A. Donovan, Heather S. Jim, Kristin M. Phillips, Brent J. Small, Christine Laronga, Paul B. Jacobsen. Prolonged impact of chemotherapy on fatigue in breast cancer survivors. Cancer, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/cncr.26226

More than 20 years ago, Charles Borduin, a University of Missouri researcher, developed a treatment for juvenile offenders that has become one of the most widely used evidence-based treatments in the world. Now, he has found that the treatment continues to have positive effects on former participants more than 20 years after treatment.

Throughout the course of his career, Borduin, professor of psychological sciences in the College of Arts & Science, has pioneered the treatment called Multisystemic Therapy (MST) as a way to prevent serious mental health problems in children and adolescents. MST interventions involve the offender's entire family and community, as opposed to the more common individual therapy, where the offender visits a therapist who offers feedback, support and encouragement for behavior change.

Borduin followed up with clinical trial participants that completed treatment nearly 22 years earlier, on average. He found the following differences between participants who received MST and those who received individualized therapy:

• Violent felonies: Since completing treatment, 4.3 percent of juveniles treated with MST were arrested for a violent felony, compared to 15.5 percent of individual therapy participants.
• All felonies: Overall, 34.8 percent of MST participants committed a felony, compared to 54.8 percent of individual therapy participants.
• Misdemeanors: MST participants committed five times fewer misdemeanors than individual therapy participants.
• Family problems: Individual therapy participants were involved in family-related civil suits two times more often than MST participants.

"This research shows that Multisystemic Therapy has long-lasting effects," said Borduin. "Nearly 22 years after treatment, juvenile offenders treated with MST still see positive effects. This treatment has protected many potential victims, and I hope this research helps to encourage further use of the method."

MST is used in 12 countries around the world, as well as in 34 states. In Norway, it is the national model for juvenile offender treatment. Borduin said MST is the most widely used evidence-based treatment for juvenile offenders in the U.S.; however, only 1 to 2 percent of juvenile offenders receive the treatment.

The study follows an original clinical trial that took place between 1983 and 1986. In the original trial, the 176 children who participated in the study were randomly selected for treatment with MST or individual therapy. For this study, Borduin located records for more than 80 percent of participants. On average, the follow-up occurred 21.9 years following the conclusion of treatment. Borduin said this is one of the longest post-treatment period follow-ups ever done for a psychological evidence-based treatment of any disorder.

In a previous study, Borduin found that the net cumulative benefit of providing MST to a single juvenile offender resulted in a savings to taxpayers and crime victims of $75,110 to $199,374 over nearly 14 years. Borduin now plans to study savings over the course of almost 22 years following treatment.

Borduin's findings were recently published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. He collaborated with Aaron Sawyer, a graduate student in the Department of Psychological Sciences.

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Journal Reference:

1. Aaron M. Sawyer, Charles M. Borduin. Effects of multisystemic therapy through midlife: A 21.9-year follow-up to a randomized clinical trial with serious and violent juvenile offenders.. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2011; 79 (5): 643 DOI: 10.1037/a0024862

Telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy and an exercise program, both separately and combined, are associated with short-term positive outcomes for patients with chronic widespread pain, and may offer benefits for patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"In the United States, mean [average] per-patient costs (including pain and non-pain-related medication, physician consultations, tests and procedures, and emergency department visits) in the six months following a new diagnosis of fibromyalgia were $3,481," the authors write as background information in the article. "There is a need to develop clinically effective and cost-effective, acceptable interventions at a primary care level that could potentially be available to a large number of patients."

John McBeth, M.A., Ph.D., then of the Arthritis Research U.K. Epidemiology Unit, University of Manchester, England, now of the Arthritis Research U.K. Primary Care Centre, Keele University, Staffordshire, England, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of a telephone-based cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, or a combined intervention among patients with chronic widespread pain.

The authors randomized 442 patients with chronic widespread pain to receive six months of telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (TCBT), graded exercise, combined intervention, or treatment as usual (control group). The primary outcome was self-rated score measuring how patients felt their health had changed since the period prior to entering the trial, which was measured using a 7-point scale on a questionnaire or telephone interview conducted by study personnel. A "positive outcome" was defined as feeling "much better" or "very much better."

After six months (end of the intervention period), 8.1 percent of participants in the control group reported positive outcomes, compared with 29.9 percent of the TCBT group, 34.8 percent of the exercise group and 37.2 percent of the combined intervention group. Results were similar at the nine-month follow-up, with 8.3 percent of participants in the control group, 32.6 percent of the TCBT group, 24.2 percent of the exercise group and 37.1 percent of the combined intervention group reporting positive outcomes.

At the six and nine-month follow-ups, the combined intervention was associated with improvements in the 6-Item Short Form Health Questionnaire physical component score and a reduction in passive coping strategies.

"This trial demonstrates short- to medium-term improvements in patients with chronic widespread pain," the authors conclude. "Whether improvements continue in the longer term should be established. These results provide encouragement that short-term improvement is possible in a substantial proportion of patients with chronic widespread pain."

Editorial: Thinking Our Way to Better Treatments of Chronic Pain

In an accompanying editorial, Seth A. Berkowitz, M.D., and Mitchell H. Katz, M.D., both of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, write that "non-opioid-based alternatives to chronic pain management are desperately needed."

"Fortunately, in this issue of the Archives, McBeth et al make an important contribution by demonstrating that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exercise, either alone or in combination, are superior to usual management of chronic widespread pain, a subset of chronic nonmalignant pain," the authors write. "Using CBT and exercise, however, may offer even further advantages. While most treatments for depression are safe, all medications carry adverse effects and risk adverse events."

Berkowitz and Katz also note that CBT and exercise, "represent a management strategy that puts patients firmly in charge. The skills learned in CBT, for example, are available after hours and over long weekends and do not require monthly refills. Moreover, because CBT can be administered by telephone, this intervention is convenient and can be made available to a wide range of patients."

"As practicing physicians who treat many patients with chronic pain, we welcome additional research that seeks to minimize the use of pharmacotherapy, with its unclear efficacy and attendant consequences, in favor of a regimen that focuses in a truly patient-centered way, on teaching skills for self-management of symptoms and return to meaningful lives."

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Journal References:

1. J. McBeth, G. Prescott, G. Scotland, K. Lovell, P. Keeley, P. Hannaford, P. McNamee, D. P. M. Symmons, S. Woby, C. Gkazinou, M. Beasley, G. J. Macfarlane. Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Exercise, or Both for Treating Chronic Widespread Pain. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.555
2. S. A. Berkowitz, M. H. Katz. Thinking Our Way to Better Treatments of Chronic Pain. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.547

— Football players experience repeated head trauma throughout their careers, which results in short and long-term effects to their cognitive function, physical and mental health. University of Missouri researchers are investigating how other lifestyle factors, including diet and exercise, impact the late-life health of former collision-sport athletes.

The researchers found that former football players experience more late-life cognitive difficulties and worse physical and mental health than other former athletes and non-athletes. In addition, former football players who consumed high-fat diets had greater cognitive difficulties with recalling information, orientation and engaging and applying ideas. Frequent, vigorous exercise was associated with higher physical and mental health ratings.

"While the negative effects of repeated collisions can't be completely reversed, this study suggests that former athletes can alter their lifestyle behaviors to change the progression of cognitive decline," said Pam Hinton, associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology. "Even years after they're done playing sports, athletes can improve their diet and exercise habits to improve their mental and physical health."

In the study, Hinton compared former collision sport (football) players to former non-collision- sport athletes and non-athletes. Participants were given questionnaires to assess their cognitive, mental and physical health. The researchers examined how players' current lifestyle habits negatively or positively affected their collision-related health problems. Former football players who consumed more total and saturated fat and cholesterol reported more cognitive difficulties than those who consumed less fat and had better dietary habits.

"Football will always be around, so it's impossible to eliminate head injuries; however, we can identify ways to reduce the detrimental health effects of repeated head trauma," Hinton said. "It's important to educate athletes and people who work with athletes about the benefits of low-fat and balanced diets to help players improve their health both while playing sports and later in life. It's a simple, but not an easy thing to do."

Hinton is the director of graduate studies for the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology in the College of Human Environmental Sciences (HES). The department is a joint effort by HES, the School of Medicine and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

The study, "Effects of Current Exercise and Diet on Late-Life Cognitive Health of Former College Football Players," is published in the current issue of Physician and Sportsmedicine. In future studies, the researchers plan to increase the sample size and have participants perform tests to measure cognitive functioning instead of utilizing self-reported measures.

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Journal Reference:

1. Pamela Hinton, Brick Johnstone, Edward Blaine, Angela Bodling. Effects of Current Exercise and Diet on Late-Life Cognitive Health of Former College Football Players. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2011; 39 (3): 11 DOI: 10.3810/psm.2011.09.1916

A web-based computer-tailored intervention aiming to increase physical activity, decrease sedentary behavior, and promote healthy eating among adolescents was not associated with positive long-term outcome measures, but may have positive short-term effects on eating behaviors, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"The high prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents is a major public health concern because of its association with various chronic diseases," the authors write as background information in the article. "Computer tailoring has been recognized as a promising health communication technique to promote energy balance-related behaviors."

To evaluate short- and long-term effectiveness of a web-based computer-tailored intervention on preventing excessive weight gain in adolescents, Nicole P. M. Ezendam, Ph.D., then of Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, now of Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands, and colleagues developed the online school-based, FATaintPHAT intervention. The intervention included 20 schools in the Netherlands, and a total of 883 students ranging from 12 to 13 years of age. The main objectives of the intervention were to improve dietary behaviors (including reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, and increasing intake of fruits, vegetables and whole grains), reduce sedentary behavior and increase physical activity. Students not meeting behavioral guidelines at the start of the study were considered "at risk."

The FATaintPHAT intervention included eight modules that addressed issues of weight management and energy balance-behaviors. Each module contained information about the behavior-health link, an assessment of behavior, individually tailored feedback on the behavior and an option to formulate an implementation intention to prompt specific goal setting and action planning.

The complete analysis showed no intervention effects on BMI (body mass index), waist circumference, or percentage of students being overweight or obese in the total sample. At the four-month follow-up, students in the intervention group were less likely to report drinking more than 400 milliliters (13.52 ounces) of sugar-sweetened beverages per day compared with students in the control group in the total sample, but not in the at-risk group. Average self-reported snack consumption was lower in the intervention group than the control group at the four-month follow-up; however, the difference was not statistically significant at the two-year follow-up.

Among the students at risk, those in the intervention group reported eating more pieces of fruit than those in the control group at the four-month follow-up. Students in the intervention group also reported eating more grams per day of vegetables than those in the control group for both the total sample and among at-risk students. There were no differences in self-reported consumption of whole-wheat bread between the intervention group and control group. An inverse relationship was observed for students in the intervention group, as at-risk students in the intervention group were less likely to report participating in sports at the four-month follow-up than students in the control group.

"The FATaintPHAT intervention was associated with positive short-term effects on diet but with no effects or unfavorable effects on physical activity and sedentary behavior," the authors write. "In conclusion, our study shows that the computer-tailored intervention FATaintPHAT was not effective in modifying anthropometric outcome measures but that it can have a positive effect on dietary behaviors among adolescents at short-term follow-up."

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Journal Reference:

1. N. P. M. Ezendam, J. Brug, A. Oenema. Evaluation of the Web-Based Computer-Tailored FATaintPHAT Intervention to Promote Energy Balance Among Adolescents: Results From a School Cluster Randomized Trial. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.204