Development of Eating Disorders Symptoms Among Children
Condition: Eating Disorders Symptoms
MeSH terms: Feeding and Eating Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Randomized Clinical Trial, the research will be composed of two parts in order to examine the
      research question: a combination of controlled randomized retrospective research and
      prospective cohort research

      Prospective Cohort Research:

      The research groups - families coming for treatment in "Active Maccabi" clinics in the
      Northern Region, Israel. Approximately 30 families.

      Retrospective Random Controlled Research

        1. The research group - families that have completed an intervention program of "Active
           Maccabi" Northern Region, Israel,within the past two to three years. The families will
           be requested to attend a follow-up meeting of all family members in which they will
           answer questionnaires. Approximately 66 families.

        2. The control groups - families who did not participate in the program who have a child
           between the age 7-14 who has suffered from obesity/weight (over the past 2-3 years), in
           correlation with the child in the intervention group. Approximately 66 families.

      Hypotheses of the research:

        1. Status of the weight of the child being treated and of his siblings will be higher than
           that at the end of the program.

        2. Indication of the obesogenic environment of families participating in the program will
           be lower in comparison with families not participating in the program.

        3. The rate of eating disorder symptoms among children who participated in the program will
           be lower in comparison with those of the obese/overweight child in families who were not
           the program.

        4. The rate of eating disorder symptoms among siblings who participated in the program will
           be lower than that of siblings in families not in the program.
    

Detailed description: 
      Duration of the Research -Prospective Cohort Research: 6 months of intervention. 8 months
      follow-up.

      Research Instruments

        1. Anthropometric measurements of all children in the family (height, weight and BMI). BMI
           per centile examinations according to age.

        2. An acquaintance questionnaire and demographic details - to be answered by parents

        3. A FEAQ_R questionnaire to be answered by the parents (only in the prospective research
           group). The questionnaire will examine the obesogenic burden in the family. A column
           will be added for each sibling of relevant age. The questionnaire will be valid in
           English and Hebrew. The psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire: Alpha
           cronbach - validity 0.84; Reliability 0.78 Trt

        4. Eat-26 (cheat) questionnaire to be answered by the children and their siblings. The
           questionnaire will examine the risk of developing an eating disorder.
    

Intervention name(s): obesity treatment
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Parents' education groups for nutrition and healthy behavior with a dietician and a social worker every 2 weeks for5 months, for a total of 10 meetings. This part of the intervention aimed at providing parents with effective tools for modification of lifestyle and the family environment.
Children's individual therapy consisted of 6 individual meetings with a family physician, a physical therapist specializing in children's physical activity, and a dietician. This part of the intervention aimed at modifying nutrition and lifestyle; the physical therapist can help children incorporate physical activity into their routine.
Physical activity groups for the children, with individual physical fitness monitoring. twice a week for 6 months. .
Other intervention name(s): family based obesity treatment
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: This research is an open clinical study with two branches: a retrospective follow up and a prospective follow up
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: eating disorder; childhood obesity; family based treatment