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A Gardening Program to Assess Unhealthy Lifestyle Contributions to Summer Weight Gain in Children

Sponsor
University of Wisconsin, Madison (Other)
Overall Status
Completed
CT.gov ID
NCT00974727
Collaborator
(none)
12
Enrollment
1
Location
2
Arms
3
Duration (Months)
4
Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a summer gardening program on summer weight gain in overweight middle school children.

Condition or Disease Intervention/Treatment Phase
  • Other: Garden Fit
 N/A

Detailed Description

In the past two decades, the combination of unhealthy eating and physical inactivity has contributed to doubling the percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight. Childhood overweight is known to lead to increased risk for several morbidities in childhood and into adulthood including type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Recent data shows that children experience greater and more variable increases in BMI during summer vacation than during the school year. Our project aims to determine whether summer weight gain is due to a decrease in physical activity or an increase in daily calories as well as to assess the effectiveness of a summer gardening program on preventing summer body fat gain. We will randomize 40 middle-school children who are above the 95th percentile for BMI into either a control or intervention group. The control group will receive the standard of care and the intervention group will participate in Garden Fit, a summer gardening project at Troy Gardens in Madison, WI. As part of Garden Fit, subjects will participate in weeding, landscaping and trail maintenance activities as well as preparing meals twice a week with fresh foods from the gardens. We hypothesize that summer weight gain is due to a worsening of healthy lifestyle (decreased physical activity from school to summer and increased eating of high calorie snacks). Additionally, we hypothesize that an intervention that increases physical activity and provides increased access to healthy foods will reduce the trend of summer BMI increase.

Study Design

Study Type:
Interventional
Actual Enrollment :
12 participants
Allocation:
Non-Randomized
Intervention Model:
Parallel Assignment
Masking:
None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose:
Prevention
Official Title:
Use of Biomarkers to Assess Unhealthy Lifestyle Contributions to Summer Weight Gain in Children
Study Start Date :
May 1, 2009
Actual Primary Completion Date :
Aug 1, 2009
Actual Study Completion Date :
Aug 1, 2009

Arms and Interventions

Arm Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Gardening Program

Other: Garden Fit
8-week summer gardening program. 9am-12pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 9am-12:30pm on Tuesday and Thursday. Activities included gardening (preparing soil for planting, planting seeds and seedlings, mulching, weeding, watering, and harvesting), preparing meals with fresh foods from the garden, and other garden activities and games.
Other Names:
  • Garden Fit 2009

    		•
    No Intervention: Control

    Subjects received the standard of care for the summer.

    Outcome Measures

    Primary Outcome Measures

    1. BMI [June 2009 and August 2009]

    Secondary Outcome Measures

    1. Fitness (as measured by VO2 Submax testing) [June 2009 and August 2009]

    2. Resting Metabolic Rate [June 2009 and August 2009]

    3. Fasting insulin [June 2009 and August 2009]

    4. Fasting glucose [June 2009 and August 2009]

    5. CRP [June 2009 and August 2009]

    6. IL-6 [June 2009 and August 2009]

    7. Body Composition [June 2009 and August 2009]

    8. Plasma Carotenoids [June 2009 and August 2009]

    9. Total Energy Expenditure [June 2009 and August 2009]

    10. Food Consumption (measured by FFQs) [June 2009 and August 2009]

    Eligibility Criteria

    Criteria

    Ages Eligible for Study:
    10 Years to 14 Years
    Sexes Eligible for Study:
    All
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
    No
    Inclusion Criteria:

    • Middle school child aged 10-14 years

    • BMI at or above the 85th percentile for height and weight

    • Able to attend 8-week summer program and clinic visits

    Exclusion Criteria:

    • Any known metabolic disorder

    • Any physical disability that prevents or limits physical activity

    • Claustrophobia

    Contacts and Locations

    Locations

    Site City State Country Postal Code
    1 University of Wisconsin Madison Wisconsin United States 53706

    Sponsors and Collaborators

    • University of Wisconsin, Madison

    Investigators

    • Principal Investigator: Dale Schoeller, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Department of Nutritional Sciences

    Study Documents (Full-Text)

    None provided.

    More Information

    Publications

    Responsible Party:
    University of Wisconsin, Madison
    ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
    NCT00974727
    Other Study ID Numbers:
    • MSN106189
    First Posted:
    Sep 10, 2009
    Last Update Posted:
    Oct 5, 2015
    Last Verified:
    Sep 1, 2009
    Keywords provided by University of Wisconsin, Madison
    Childhood overweight
    Gardening
    Summer weight gain
    Additional relevant MeSH terms:
    Overweight
    Weight Gain

    Study Results

    No Results Posted as of Oct 5, 2015