Adaptation and evaluation of a multicomponent intervention to prevent childhood overweight and obesity in schoolchildren from two demonstration areas of Colombia

Objective: To adapt and evaluate the effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention (individual, school, family and community) to prevent overweight and obesity in 8-year-old schoolchildren from two cities in Colombia. Methodology: Pre-post quasi-experimental methodological approach with a control group, which will be developed in phases and will involve various methods. Educational institutions in each of the cities will be chosen to make up the intervention group and the control group. The sample of 1,570 schoolchildren in 3rd grade will allow the detection of statistical associations with RR greater than 0.6 for the incidence of obesity, comparing intervened schoolchildren with control schoolchildren from the five participating cities, an alpha error of 0.05, a power of 0, 80, 20% loss to follow-up and a correlation coefficient of 0.2. The intervention has a special emphasis on diet and physical activity in schoolchildren, families, schools and the community. The effectiveness and maintenance of the same will be studied by comparing the changes in the groups calculating the RR and the 95% CI, using multivariate analysis.

Community intervention on schoolchildren

This research, then, seeks a very positive social and environmental impact, guaranteeing that its findings affect the improvement of the health condition of school communities and their families.