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Quality of life improves in children and adolescents during a community-based overweight and obesity treatment

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Abstract

Purpose

The quality of life is compromised in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the quality of life improves during a community-based overweight and obesity treatment, and whether improvements depend on reductions in the degree of obesity.

Methods

Quality of life was assessed using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) 4.0 in children and adolescents aged 3–18 years with overweight or obesity [body mass index (BMI) ≥85th percentile] upon entry into a community-based chronic care overweight and obesity treatment based upon The Children’s Obesity Clinic’s Treatment protocol, and upon follow-up after 10–30 months of treatment. Height and weight were measured at each consultation and converted into a BMI standard deviation score (SDS).

Results

Upon entry, 477 children (212 boys) completed a PedsQL, and 317 (143 boys) completed another PedsQL after a median of 13 months of treatment. Quality of life improved (p < 0.001), regardless of sex, age, and pubertal development stage upon entry (p ≥ 0.108). Greater reductions in BMI SDS and high socioeconomic status were associated with greater improvements in the quality of life (p ≤ 0.047). However, improvements also occurred in children and adolescents with low socioeconomic status or who increased their BMI SDS (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Improvements in quality of life occurred in children and adolescents during a community-based overweight and obesity treatment, even in children and adolescents who increased their BMI SDS. Thus, improvements may be due to the treatment itself and not exclusively to reductions in BMI SDS.

Trial registration

Clinicaltrials.gov, ID-no.: NCT02013843.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

PedsQL:

Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory

Qol:

Quality of life

SDS:

Standard deviation score

TCOCT:

The Children’s Obesity Clinic’s Treatment

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Mrs Rikke H. Melskens for her supervision of the establishing of this community-based child and adolescent overweight and obesity treatment program and to Dr. Michael Gamborg for his advice regarding the statistics. Thank you to the staffs at The Children’s Obesity Clinic and at the healthcare centers in Hedensted, Holbæk, Horsens, Kalundborg, Kolding, Slagelse, Stevns, and Vejle for their participation in the study.

Funding

The study was funded by the Region Zealand, the Region Zealand Health Scientific Research Foundation, and the Aase and Ejnar Danielsen’s Foundation. The study was a part of the research project “The Danish Childhood Obesity Biobank” (ClinicalTrials.gov, ID-no.: NCT00928473), conducted in collaboration with TARGET (The Impact of our Genomes on Individual Treatment Response in Obese Children, http://www.target.ku.dk) and BIOCHILD (Genetics and Systems Biology of Childhood Obesity in India and Denmark http://www.biochild.ku.dk), which are funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark (0603-00484B and 0603-00457B), the Region Zealand Health Scientific Research Foundation, and The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF15OC0016544). The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research is an independent research centre at the University of Copenhagen, partially funded by an unrestricted donation from the Novo Nordisk Foundation (http://www.metabol.ku.dk).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics, The Children’s Obesity Clinic, Copenhagen University Hospital Holbæk, Smedelundsgade 60, 4300, Holbæk, Denmark

    Pernille M. Mollerup, Tenna R. H. Nielsen, Christine Bøjsøe, Julie T. Kloppenborg & Jens-Christian Holm

  2. The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section for Metabolic Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Tenna R. H. Nielsen, Christine Bøjsøe, Jennifer L. Baker & Jens-Christian Holm

  3. Department of Paediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev, Herlev Ringvej 75, 2730, Herlev, Denmark

    Julie T. Kloppenborg

  4. Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, The Capital Region, Nordre Fasanvej 57, 2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Jennifer L. Baker

  5. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jens-Christian Holm

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  1. Pernille M. Mollerup
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  2. Tenna R. H. Nielsen
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  3. Christine Bøjsøe
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Correspondence to Pernille M. Mollerup.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. (The regional Danish Ethics Committee Protocol ID: SJ-104).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mollerup, P.M., Nielsen, T.R.H., Bøjsøe, C. et al. Quality of life improves in children and adolescents during a community-based overweight and obesity treatment. Qual Life Res 26, 1597–1608 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-017-1504-x

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