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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- School-based programs aimed at getting overweight kids into shape can work -- but three months of summer vacation is enough to put them right back where they started.
That's the key finding from Wisconsin researchers who followed up on 17 middle school children in a previous study. All took part in a lifestyle-focused fitness program during the school year, achieving significant gains in cardiovascular and fasting insulin levels by the time the last bell rang.
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The new study looked at how those same kids fared after three months of summer vacation. The sad news is all the gains were lost. Overall, maximum oxygen consumption (a key marker of cardiovascular health) decreased. Body fat increased, as did fasting insulin levels.
In an accompanying editorial, John Cawley, Ph.D., from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., suggests these findings show public health policies should be based on solid cost effectiveness analysis to ensure schools and other organizations are getting what they pay for in terms of results.
"Specifically, the critical information that policymakers and educators lack is how to achieve the greatest reduction in obesity for the fixed budget they have available; in other words, how they can achieve the greatest 'bang for the buck,'" Dr. Cawley writes.
Such analysis, he continues, can ensure better allocation of funds to programs aimed at battling childhood obesity.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 2007;161:611-614
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