Examination of a board game approach to children's involvement in family-based weight management vs. traditional family-based behavioral counseling in primary care.

The most effective intervention model for childhood obesity is known as family-based behavioral group treatments. There are also studies that investigate the effects of educational games for children to gain healthy eating and physical exercise habits. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of a family-based group treatment with an educational game (Kaledo) intervention in childhood obesity. Kaledo is a board game that was designed to improve nutritional knowledge and healthy life style habits. It is played with nutrition and activity cards that players can select from, and a total score is calculated in the end of the game according to energy intake and expenditure. Obese children between 9 and 12 ages were involved in this study. Participants randomly divided into behavioral and game intervention groups. Clinical evaluation was performed in the first and second counseling in both groups. Marmara University Family Medicine Department Obese Children and Adolescents Interview Form, Physical Activity Evaluation Form, and Three-day Food Record Form were used for this purpose. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Parent Report Version and Children's Depression Inventory were used for the assessment of psychiatric symptoms. After the clinical evaluation, an education session about healthy eating and physical activity was attended by both groups. After that, for the behavioral groups, parents and children were assigned to different groups, while for the game intervention group, parents were assigned to behavioral sessions and children were assigned to game (Kaledo) sessions. A total of six sessions with 1-h duration and 2-week interval were performed in both groups. Height and weight were measured in each session and analysis was performed on the data of the children who participated in all of the sessions. Although a total of 108 children were clinically evaluated, 52 children and their parents, 26 in the behavioral group and 26 in the game intervention group, participated in two or more sessions. Twenty-four participants, 12 in behavioral and 12 in the game intervention group, finished the study by participating in all of the six sessions. Thus, dropout rate was 74%. BMI and BMI z-scores decreased in both groups compared with the initial measures and these changes were statistically significant. For the behavioral group, these changes were - 1.01 (25.44 to 24.43, p = 0.03) and - 0.17 (2.07 to 1.90, p = 0.000) and for the game group, - 0.74 (26.98 to 26.24, p = 0.007) and - 0.09 (2.07 to 1.98, p = 0.003). There were no significant differences between behavioral and game intervention groups in point of BMI and BMI z-scores (p = 0.130 and p = 0.706). CONCLUSION: Family-based behavioral group treatment and game (Kaledo) intervention were found to be effective in childhood obesity management in this research. There was no significant difference between the two interventions. According to this study, these intervention models can be advised to primary care physicians to be used in the management of childhood obesity. What is Known: - Family-based behavioral group treatment is known as the most efficient model for childhood obesity management. What is New: - In this study, for the first time, a game (Kaledo) intervention was found to be effective in childhood obesity management. - Compared with family-based behavioral group treatment, there was no significant difference between the two interventions.

Psychosocial functioning in pediatric patients with pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum are the most commonly seen anterior chest wall deformities. Recent studies reveal that minimal invasive repair of pectus deformities improves the quality of life. Our aim is to assess the psychosocial functioning and sociodemographic characteristics of pediatric patients with pectus deformities and evaluate the differences between patients operated on with minimal invasive repair techniques and nonoperated patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS:  Thirty-two patients with pectus deformities who were operated on 6 months or more before and 31 nonoperated patients participated in the study. The Children's Depression Inventory, Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, Capa Social Phobia Scale for Children and Adolescents, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire - Self-Report Version (SDQ-SR), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children - Trait Version were completed by the patients. The SDQ-Parent Report Version (SDQ-PR) was completed by their parents. RESULTS:  There were no statistically significant differences between operated and nonoperated patient groups in terms of total scores on the psychiatric rating scales. Prosocial behavior subscale scores in SDQ-SR (P = 0.013) and SDQ-PR (P = 0.019) were lower in the operated group. CONCLUSION: Prosocial behavior levels were lower in the operated group. Further exploration of the psychosocial profile of pediatric patients with pectus deformities would better elucidate their needs in the course of their socioemotional development.