Interventions for preventing overweight and obesity in racial/ethnic minority children and adolescents in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity are serious public health problems in the United States, particularly among racial/ethnic minority groups. Despite recent data indicating a possible plateau in obesity prevalence, alarmingly high overweight and obesity rates continue to persist in racial/ethnic minority children and adolescents.;While there are extensive reviews in the literature assessing the effects of obesity prevention interventions in children and adolescents, most of them are not minority specific or multi-ethnic. To address this gap, the present review provides a systematic summary of obesity prevention interventions specifically targeted at preventing overweight and obesity in racial/ethnic minority children and adolescents.;The data sources used in this review includes PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL Database of Controlled Clinical Trials, PsycINFO, CINAHAL, Google Scholar, and reference lists of included studies. Studies were included if (1) the study was a randomized controlled trial conducted in the United States, (2) a change in BMI was assessed, (3) the intervention components integrated diet/nutrition education and physical activity, (4) the duration was 12 weeks or longer, and (5) the study included sufficient outcome statistics to calculate effect sizes.;The search identified 1,651 potentially eligible articles. Twenty-six studies were included in the systematic review and 20 studies were included in the meta-analysis. While eight of the individual studies reported statistical significant changes in BMI in favor of the interventions, the majority of studies reported no significant intervention effect on BMI. After the studies were combined for meta-analysis, obesity prevention interventions when compared to control groups were associated with a small overall intervention effect: -0.20 kg/m2 (95% CI -0.35 to -0.06; p = 0.006).;The paucity of studies and the short-term duration for most of the interventions included in this review suggests a critical need for additional long-term obesity prevention research targeting racial/ethnic minority children and adolescents. Future obesity prevention intervention strategies should not only focus on individual behaviors but also on the underlying factors that contribute to overweight and obesity disparities in racial/ethnic minority children and adolescents.