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Obesity, school intervention, physical activity and healthy lifestyles in spanish children

Abstract:

Introduction: Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence have increased worldwide in recent decades. This fact is associated mainly with a lack of physical activity, unhealthy lifestyle habits and eating behaviors. Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of different school intervention studies carried out in Spain to prevent and treat obesity in boys and girls. Methods: An electronic search strategy was carried out using the PubMed, Medline and SPORTdiscus databases, under the terms "school-based intervention", "Spain", "healthy lifestyle", "obesity prevention", "physical activity", "nutrition”, “childhood obesity” and “children obesity”. 124 articles were identified and only 11 met the inclusion criteria. Conclusions: The interventions carried out by school were not effective or significant to change the anthropometric indicators of Spanish children and adolescents. However, school interventions, together with family involvement, can be effective in modifying changes in nutritional habits, level of physical activity and healthy lifestyle habits in the infant-juvenile stage, since they are the main determinants of obesity in childhood. Finally, establishing an adequate lifestyle early can prevent obesity and overweight in adulthood.