Critical Appraisal of Research – Childhood Obesity

Critical Appraisal of Research – Childhood Obesity

The clinical issue of focus for this project is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a universal health issue that has become more prevalent around the world. Obesity in childhood is more likely to proceed in adulthood resulting in psychosocial, cardiometabolic disorders, and premature death (Jebeile et al., 2022). Obesity in children has been linked with decreased physical activity, increased screen time, poor quality of sleep, short sleep time, and late bedtime. There are various behavioral interventions used in obesity management including dietary intervention, physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behaviors. Traditional methods of ensuring that behavior change is maintained have not been helpful (Jebeile et al., 2022). The use of emerging technologies has shown promising results in managing different medical conditions. This paper explores if technological innovations can effectively help manage childhood obesity. The PICOT question for this study is, “In children aged 5-12 years, does the implementation of technology-based interventions that promote healthy weight behavior, compared to traditional methods, result in a significant decrease in the prevalence of childhood obesity and overweight over 6 months?”

Literature Review

When searching for the four articles I used Google Scholar, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. In Google Scholar, I used key phrases like “childhood obesity”, “physical activity promotion”, “technology-based interventions”, “healthy eating habits”, and “prevalence reduction”, to narrow down the results of the search. I deployed the use of Boolean operators like “OR” and “AND” were used to refine and combine search terms (Jha et al., 2022). For instance, the search string used was “childhood obesity AND technology-based interventions AND healthy eating habits OR physical activity AND prevalence reduction. Approximately 1000 articles were the yield of the search. To narrow down the search results, I used filters like publication date range within the last 5 years, the type of study, the age group of the children, and study language (Jha et al., 2022).

Critical Analysis

The first and second articles are systemic reviews, which are in evidence level I, while the third and fourth articles were randomized clinical trials, which are in evidence level II. The first article is a review that assessed the effectiveness of wearable devices as physical activity intervention in weight control (Yen & Chiu, 2019). The second review looks into the effectiveness of mobile health interventions on obesity and diabetes treatment and management (Wang et al., 2019). The third article studied the effectiveness of inter-based childhood obesity prevention programs for preschool-aged children (Hammersley et al., 2019). The last article is a randomized controlled trial that looked into the effectiveness of a twelve-month telephone and SMS support to mothers with children aged 2 years in decreasing the BMI of children (Li Ming Wen et al., 2023). All the articles found that the technology-based intervention resulted in decreased obesity indicators except the third article. However, all found there was a change in healthy behavior.

Recommendation

In children aged 5-12 years, the implementation of technology-based interventions that promote healthy weight behavior, results in a significant decrease in the prevalence of childhood obesity and overweight over 6 months compared to traditional methods. The use of technology in the management of childhood obesity is strongly recommended for it results in reduced obesity indicators and positive behavioral change.

In conclusion, the purpose of the paper was achieved fully. More research is needed to establish the specific technology that results in reduced obesity indicators and more positive behaviors.

References

Hammersley, M. L., Okely, A. D., Batterham, M. J., & Jones, R. A. (2019). An Internet-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Program (Time2bHealthy) for Parents of Preschool-Aged Children: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(2), e11964. https://doi.org/10.2196/11964

Jebeile, H., Kelly, A. S., O’Malley, G., & Baur, L. A. (2022). Obesity in Children and adolescents: epidemiology, causes, assessment, and Management. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-8587(22)00047-x

Jha, R., Sondhi, V., & Vasudevan, B. (2022). Literature search: Simple rules for confronting the unknown. Medical Journal Armed Forces India, 78, S14–S23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mjafi.2022.07.009

Li Ming Wen, Xu, H., Philayrath Phongsavan, Rissel, C., Hayes, A., Taki, S., Buchanan, L., Simone, L., Moreton, R., & Baur, L. A. (2023). Twelve-month effectiveness of telephone and SMS support to mothers with children aged 2 years in reducing children’s BMI: a randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Obesity, 47(9), 791–798. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01311-7

Wang, Y., Min, J., Khuri, J., Xue, H., Xie, B., Kaminsky, L., & Cheskin, L. (2019). Effectiveness of mHealth interventions on diabetes and obesity treatment and management: A systematic examination of recent evidence (Preprint). JMIR MHealth and UHealth, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.2196/15400

Yen, H., & Chiu, H. (2019). The effectiveness of wearable technologies as physical activity interventions in weight control: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Obesity Reviews, 20(10), 1485–1493. https://doi.org/10.1111/

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Critical Appraisal of Research – Childhood Obesity

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