Eating Behavior, Self-Regulation
Conditions
Brief summary
Children in rural communities experience significant obesity-related health disparities; they are 26%-55% more likely to be obese and less likely to have health insurance and access to weight management specialists than are their urban peers. Geographic-specific disparities in obesity may be due, in part, to variations in eating behaviors. Children in rural communities describe purchasing and consuming significantly more energy-dense, low-nutrient food items relative to their urban peers. Existing behavioral strategies for improving children's EI patterns have largely been ineffective in reducing risk for excess weight gain. The primary aim of the proposed study is to test the effects of a brief, novel strategy for improving rural children's eating behaviors. Specifically, the study aims to harness the well-documented benefits of an acute bout (20 min) of moderate physical exercise on children's executive functioning, and to see if these cognitive changes lead to better self-regulation of eating. If 20 min of moderate physical exercise is associated with observed improvements in preadolescent children's eating secondary to increases in executive functioning, these data may offer explicit targets for an obesity prevention trial in rural Oregon elementary schools.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALAcute moderate physical activity
For 20 minutes, participants will walk on a treadmill at a moderate intensity based on a combination of evidence-based and pre-determined parameters, including ratings of perceived exertion and heart rate
Sponsors
University of Oregon
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Randomized crossover design
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to 10 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 8-10 years (block recruited to ensure 50% female, 50% obese) * Rural geographic location (≥ 10 miles from a city of ≥ 40,000) * Understand English
Exclusion criteria
* BMI \< 5th percentile * Major medical condition, current full-threshold psychiatric diagnosis, or moderate suicide risk (e.g., plan or intent) * Current or recent use (\< 3 months) of medication known to affect body weight or energy intake * Recent brain injuries that would be expected to affect neuropsychological functioning * Mobility impairments that would impede their ability to walk on a treadmill * Estimated full-scale intelligence quotient score ≤ 70 * History of pregnancy * Significant food allergies that would prevent them from safely consuming the study's breakfast and lunch meals * Responses on a food preference questionnaire that suggest that they do not like (i.e., rated them below 6 on a scale from 1 to 10) at least 50% of the food items offered in the lunch test meal
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Energy intake | up to 14 days | total kcal consumed during a laboratory test meal after each of two conditions |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Executive functioning | Assessed immediately after each of the two experimental conditions administered during two separate study visits approximately 14 days of each other | executive functioning performance assessed with a 3-minute task immediately after each of two conditions |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed