Reanalysis of weight changes in behavior modification and nutrition education for childhood obesity

Changes in percentage overweight for children who were provided behavior modification were 1.7 times as great as those provided nutrition education during treatment, and 2.7 times as great by the end of follow-up. The superiority of behavior modification to nutrition education was shown for comparisons of means in three separate analyses. However, examination of the three studies which have studied parent and child weight changes when both are offered treatment, in general, show that differential effects of treatments are observed more reliably for the parents than the children. Possible reasons for these results are discussed.