Counseling on healthy lifestyles and behavioral change in obese school children: controlled intervention in mothers/caretakers

Obesity is the main nutritional problem among Chilean children. Behavioral changes through the stage of change model have been proposed as allow cost prevention alternative that has greater impact than the informative model. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of counseling on healthy lifestyles on the behavioral changes of obese children 6 to 9 years of age. A quasi-experimental pilot study including mothers caretakers (N=50) of obese children from public schools was carried out. The intervention consisted in three home-based counseling sessions to the mothers caretakers during a 16-week period. The main results indicated that counseling contributed to decreased daily television time and improved the nutritional quality of the foods brought from home by children from the intervention group compared to children from the control group. Counseling is an effective prevention strategy whose effects need to be confirmed in a randomized study including a larger sample.