Shapedown: A multidisciplinary, family-based approach to childhood and adolescent overweight

Childhood overweight is a critical and urgent problem that warrants effective interventions in schools, homes, and communities. Research has shown that both social and cultural norms, as well as the physical environment, contribute to this international epidemic. The St. Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS) implemented the nationally recognized Shapedown program to address the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents of southeast Michigan. Shapedown is a ten-week, multimodality, family-based program targeting weight management and lifestyle choices of significantly overweight children ages 6-17. A multidisciplinary team that includes a nutritionist, social worker, and exercise physiologist deliver weekly, two-hour sessions. Measures collected to evaluate Shapedown participants at baseline, and 10-week follow-up include clinical and anthropometric (e.g., BMI; body weight; BP; LBM; flexibility; and endurance) and behavioral (e.g., nutrition; physical activity; and communication). Program outcome measures and process indicators will be presented (n=67). Preliminary data suggest that among the sample of children and adolescents (67% female; 33% male) measured at baseline, 87.5% were overweight (defined as ≥ 95th percentile BMI-for-age); and at completion of the program, paired sample T-Test suggests mean BMI scores decreased from 30.9 to 30.1 (p<0.001) among this sample. Similar anthropometric as well as behavioral patterns of change will be discussed.