Behandlingsmetoder mot övervikt och fetma hos barn

Sammanfattning: Overweight and obesity among children and adolescents is increasing. Diseases which earlier occurred exclusively among adults are now also observed among children. There is an urgent need for new treatments that can change this negative trend. The aim of this study was to describe existing treatments for obesity among children in the age of 6-12 and the effect of those treatments. This descriptive literature study is based on 17 research articles published between 2000 and 2007 from different parts in the world. The treatments found in the studies could be categorised as follows: treatment with only physical activity, multidisciplinary treatment, multidisciplinary treatment with family participation, behavioural program with support from parents and alternative medicine treatments. No significant pattern could be observed for the effects of the different treatments. Similar treatments showed different effects, which makes the data difficult to interpret. Good results among the studied treatments were however, often obtained using multidisciplinary programs. Moreover it was shown that support from parents had a positive effect. It is of major importance to adjust the treatment to each individual and to construct the program in such a way that the effect reside also after completion of the treatment.