Exercise program for overweight kids can improve their health but not their mental health

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-07-28 01:00

Australia; International; NSW

UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

An exercise program featuring 3-5 sessions a week of aerobic plus resistance training for 20-weeks improved health measures such as fitness and body composition in kids who were overweight or obese, but not their mental health according to Spanish-led trial with an Australian author. The small study found benefits for fitness and body fat composition plus measures which indicate risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The study did not find a mental health benefit although the authors say this could be because most of the children had a healthy mental status going into the trial.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Newcastle, University of Granada, Spain

Funder: This project was supported with grants DEP2013-47540, DEP2016-79512-R, DEP2017-91544- EXP, and RYC-2011-09011 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and by grant PID2020-120249RB-I00 from the MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033. Additional funding was obtained from the Andalusian Operational Programme supported with grant B-CTS-355- UGR18 from the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER in Spanish). Dr Cardenas-Sanchez is supported by grant FJC2018-037925-I from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by a grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement No 101028929. Dr Migueles is supported by grant FPU15/02645 from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, and grant 2012–00036 from the Swedish Research Council for Health,Working Life andWelfare. Dr Torres- Lopez is supported by grant FPU17/04802 from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Dr Rodriquez-Ayllon was funded by grant DEP2017-91544-EXP from the Ramón Areces Foundation. Additional support was obtained from grant ALICIAK-2018 from the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation, University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence, Unit of Excellence on Exercise, Nutrition and Health, the Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades; and grant DEP2005-00046/ACTI from the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations. This research was supported by grant CB22/03/00058 from the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Unión Europea–European Regional Development Fund.

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