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Effect of a Web-Based Nutritional and Physical Activity Intervention With Email Support (the EDDY Program) on Primary
Alina Gansterer1, Paula Moliterno1, Rhoia Neidenbach2
1Austrian Academic Institute for Nutrition, Vienna, Austria.
Insights
The EDDY program, a web-based intervention, helped reduce BMI z-scores in children during COVID-19. This study highlights the importance of physical activity and nutritional education for maintaining children's health.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- COVID-19 mitigation measures led to increased childhood weight and BMI due to reduced physical activity and increased calorie intake.
- Pre-existing global issues of overweight and obesity were exacerbated by the pandemic, posing significant health risks.
- Developing interventions to maintain children's health during pandemics is crucial, yet data on such programs is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the 15-week EDDY (Effect of Sports and Diet Trainings to Prevent Obesity and Secondary Diseases and to Influence Young Children's Lifestyle) program.
- To assess the impact of nutritional education and physical activity on children's BMI z-score during the COVID-19 pandemic in Vienna, Austria.
Main Methods:
- A web-based intervention included 3 weekly videos (2 physical activity, 1 nutritional education) and biweekly parent newsletters.
- The study involved 125 children aged 8-11, divided into an intervention group and a control group (previous school year data).
- Anthropometric measurements were collected before and after the intervention period.
Main Results:
- Despite a high dropout rate (45.6%), the intervention group showed a decrease in BMI z-score (-0.06), while the control group showed an increase (+0.17).
- A statistically significant difference in BMI z-score changes was observed in normal-weight children.
- The intervention led to significant BMI z-score reductions in both boys and girls.
Conclusions:
- Combined nutritional education and physical activity via web-based interventions can effectively mitigate pandemic-related weight gain in children.
- Further research with larger sample sizes and diverse locations is recommended to validate these findings.
- Rapid implementation and establishment of such intervention programs are essential for public health during crises.
Background:
COVID-19 mitigation measures enhanced increases in children's weight and BMI due to decreased physical activity and increased energy intake. Overweight and obesity were major worldwide problems before the pandemic, and COVID-19 increased their severity even more. High BMI directly correlates with health disadvantages including cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health diseases. Therefore, it is vitally important to develop counteracting interventions to maintain children's health during exceptional situations like pandemics. However, worldwide data from such interventions are limited, and to our knowledge, no suitable study has been carried out during the pandemic in Austria.
Objective:
This study was conducted to examine a 15-week web-based intervention with email support, the EDDY (Effect of Sports and Diet Trainings to Prevent Obesity and Secondary Diseases and to Influence Young Children's Lifestyle) program and the effect of nutritional education and physical activity on children's BMI z-score during the COVID-19 pandemic in Vienna, Austria.
Methods:
The intervention consisted of 3 weekly videos-2 physical activity and 1 nutritional education video, respectively-and a biweekly email newsletter for the parents. This study was conducted in a Viennese primary school from February to June 2021 by a team of physicians, nutritionists, and sports scientists, including both professionals and students. The study population included an intervention group (who received web-based nutritional and physical activity training) and a control group (who received no intervention), comprising in total 125 children aged 8 to 11 years. Due to COVID-19 mitigation measures, the control group was a comparative group observed during the prior school year (2019-2020). Anthropometric measurements were obtained before and after the intervention in both groups.
Results:
Due to a high dropout rate (n=57, 45.6%) because of the mitigation measures, there were 41 children in the intervention group and 27 in the control group. At baseline, the BMI z-score was 1.0 (SD 1.1) in the intervention group and 0.6 (SD 1.2) in the control group (P=.17). After the study period, the BMI z-score decreased by 0.06 (SD 0.21) in the intervention group, whereas it increased by 0.17 (SD 0.34) in the control group (P<.001). Comparing the change in BMI z-scores within BMI categories in the intervention group and control group revealed a statistically significant difference in the normal-weight children (P=.006). Further results showed that the decrease in BMI z-score was significant in the intervention group among both boys (P=.004) and girls (P=.01).
Conclusions:
A web-based intervention with combined nutritional education and physical activity training might be an adequate tool to lessen the enhanced increase in body weight during a pandemic. Therefore, additional studies with greater sample sizes and different locations are needed. As the implementation of such intervention programs is essential, further studies need to be established rapidly.
