The objective of the project is to develop, implement and evaluate a prevention program for obesity among adolescents in Brazil combining the primary care health system implemented in the country in recent decades with primary prevention at schools.
The study will combine primary prevention activities at the school level with secondary prevention at the household level, both focusing on behavior strategies such as mindfulness, reduction of eating rate; eating with others at a dinning table; healthy eating, increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary lifestyle habits.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
3,000
The proposed intervention will focus on encouraging students to change their eating habits and food consumption over 9 months (from March to November). Monthly 1-h sessions in the classroom will be given by the class teacher, and includes playing games, staging theater sketches, watching movies and puppet shows, and writing and drawing contests. The activities were designed to discourage students from consuming sugar-sweetened beverages as well as getting them to replace snacks, particularly processed foods (especially cookies) with fresh fruit or healthy homemade food. To reinforce the messages of the in-class nutritional sessions, a set of messages will be sent to the families in the form of illustrated booklets and recipes. The secondary prevention strategy at households will be developed for those with excessive weight. The family will receive additional motivation to change these behaviors, using the community health agents as the encourager.
Body Mass Index
Time frame: one year
Body composition
body composition will be estimated by bioelectrical impedance, using the leg=to=leg method with Tanita scales
Time frame: one year
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