School-Based Program On Metabolic Disease

Mexico occupies the first place worldwide in childhood obesity. Its urban and indigenous communities present different levels of westernization which have triggered different epidemiological diseases. This study aims to treat and prevent obesity and related diseases. A school-based multi-component intervention program is developed in three ethnic groups with varying levels of westernization: Mestizos, Seris and Yaquis. Measurements are obtained to evaluate obesity, cardiovascular, diabetes risk, hepatic and renal function, and physical fitness. The intervention consists on Physical Activity (PA), Health Education (HE) and Nutrition (NP) programs carried out in six urban (Mestizo ethnic group) and indigenous schools (Seri and Yaqui ethnic groups). A total of 800 participants were part of the PA and HE programs (Education Arm), and 117 of them were also part of the NP program (Nutrition Arm). Measurement differences, after and before treatments are used to assess the intervention effect by age, sex, ethnicity, nutritional status, and treatments. Expanded access is not applicable to this study. The Government's Secretary of Education does not allow developing a plan to share individual data of participants.

Participants from one preschool and 5 primary schools are included in the study. Participants are children between 5 and 12 years old from Sonora State, North of Mexico. Four urban schools of Mexican-Mestizos (from Hermosillo, capital city) and two indigenous schools, Seris (from Punta Chueca) and Yaquis (from Bahía de Lobos), participate in the program. Urban schools are randomly selected. Indigenous schools are hard to access, thus Seris and Yaquis school are chosen based on higher accessibility, and all grades from those schools (from first to sixth) are included. The intervention program consists of implementing Health Education, Nutrition and Physical Activity programs, and also parent involvement activities. All nutritionists, psychologists, and physical education teachers are prepared for their lessons during two weeks before the project implementation by the developers of the project (PCU and RA), who also supervise them. The intervention program is split into two Arms; the Education Arm, which is applied to all participants, and the Nutrition Arm, which includes the Health Education, the Physical Activity and also the Nutrition programs. The Nutrition program is randomly applied just in the Mestizo group, i.e. schools and grade are randomly allocated in Nutrition program. Anthropogenic and biochemical measurements are collected before (Measurements 1, M1) and after (Measurements 2, M2) treatments. Anthropogenic measurements are taken to all participants, while biochemical are randomly taken to 320 participants (includes all form Nutrition Arm). M1 and M2 are taken by the same team. Intervention effect is measured as the difference between M2 and M1, calculated as the difference (Dif) in M=M2-M1. Thus, negative DifM values indicate a decrease in the variable measured after the intervention, while positive DifM values indicate an increase in the variable. To assess the effect of age, sex, ethnic group (Mestizos, Seris, Yaquis), treatments (T1, T2) and nutritional status (Normal weight, Overweight+Obesity) in DifM (i.e. DifBMI), we perform Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) with Gaussian distribution(1). The initial model contains all single effects and all possible interactions of such explanatory variables. GLM simplification is done by stepwise deletion of the least significant terms. Subsequent models were generated by the stepwise removal of non-significant terms, and assessing each simplification with the Akaike information criterion (AIC) using the ΔAIC \> 2 criterion(2). All models considered are subjected to the customary residual analyses and show a satisfactory fit (results not shown). All statistical analyses are carried out in R(3).

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Children from the selected grades and schools.
* Children who voluntarily accept participating in the program.
* Children whose parents must authorize their participation in the program, signing an informed consent document.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants with any incapacity to perform physical activity.