Reading may help obese kids lose weight

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A novel, written with the help of pediatricians to include strong role models and positive messages about getting healthy by exercising and eating right, augmented weight loss in a group of adolescent girls participating in a weight management program, according to research presented at the Obesity Society's annual scientific meeting in Phoenix.

The idea that a book can help girls lose weight is "encouraging because it's fairly easy to implement," said Dr. Sarah Armstrong, director of Duke's Healthy Lifestyles Program, where the study took place.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children between 6 and 19 are overweight or obese, a number that has tripled since 1980. Intensive efforts are underway to find ways to help overweight kids lose weight and "most don't work very well," Armstrong said.

In the study, researchers divided 64 obese 9- to 13-year-old girls, who were already taking part in a comprehensive weight loss program, into three groups: one group read no books, one read a "control" book, and one read the "intervention" book called Lake Rescue (Beacon Street Press).

"This book is not just a story about a girl who loses weight. It's about a heroine who comes to understand her battle with weight in a very real and tangible way that preteens can connect with," Armstrong noted in a telephone interview with Reuters Health.

After 6 months, the researchers found that the girls who read Lake Rescue had a significant 0.71 percent drop in their body mass index, the ratio between height and weight. The group that read the control book had a drop of 0.33 percent in their BMI, while the non-readers increased their BMI scores by 0.05 percent.

"The strength of the study is not in the magnitude of the result, but in the simplicity of the intervention," Armstrong said. "It is very rare to find an intervention, especially in this preteen age group, who are too young to qualify for medication or surgery to help them lose weight, which is positive in its message and has a beneficial effect on body mass," she added.