A school-based obesity control programme: Project Energize. Two-year outcomes
Open accessAbstract
Through-school nutrition and physical activity interventions are designed to help reduce excess weight gain and risk of chronic disease. From 2004 to 2006, Project Energize was delivered in the Waikato Region of New Zealand as a longitudinal randomised controlled study of 124 schools (year 1–6), stratified by rurality and social deprivation, and randomly assigned to intervention or control. Children (686 boys and 662 girls) aged 5 (1926) and 10 (1426) years (692 interventions and 660 controls) had height, weight, body fat (by bioimpedance) and resting blood pressure (BP) measured at baseline and 2 years later. Each intervention school was assigned an ‘Energizer’; a trained physical activity and nutrition change agent, who worked with the school to achieve goals based on healthier eating and quality physical activity. After adjustment for baseline measures, rurality and social deprivation, the intervention was associated with a reduced accumulation of body fat in younger children and a reduced rate of rise in systolic BP in older children. There was some evidence that the pattern of change within an age group varied with rurality, ethnicity and sex. We conclude that the introduction of an ‘Energizer led’ through-school programme may be associated with health benefits over 2 years, but the trajectory of this change needs to be measured over a longer period. Attention should also be paid to the differing response by ethnicity, sex, age group and the effect of rurality and social deprivation.
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Interventions aimed at the general population tend to be less effective for Māori and Pasifika communities.
“Interventions aimed at the general population tend to be less effective for Māori and Pasifika communities [28], possibly contributing to increased health inequalities [29].”
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Langford, R., Bonell, C., Jones, H., Pouliou, T., Murphy, S., Waters, E., Komro, K., Gibbs, L., Magnus, D., & Campbell, R. (2015) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1360-y · Cited by 578 · see citing works
“Twenty-nine studies were conducted in North America (27 USA [22,23,25-27,29,35,37,39,40,45,48,50-52,57-63,65, 66,70,75,83], 2 in Canada [71,82]), 19 in Europe [19-21,24,30, 32,33,36,41,42,44,47,53,74,76-78,85], 11 in Australasia [28,31,34,46,54,64,68,69,72,73,81] and eight in middleor low-income countries (China [56,7…”
BackgroundLove, R., Adams, J., & van Sluijs, E. M. F. (2019) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12823 · Cited by 452 · see citing works
McGill, R., Anwar, E., Orton, L., Bromley, H., Lloyd-Williams, F., O’Flaherty, M., Taylor-Robinson, D., Guzman-Castillo, M., Gillespie, D., Moreira, P., et al. (2015) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1781-7 · Cited by 407 · see citing works
Liu, Z., Xu, H.-M., Wen, L.-M., Peng, Y.-Z., Lin, L.-Z., Zhou, S., Li, W.-H., & Wang, H.-J. (2019) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-019-0848-8 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
The Health Promoting Schools Framework: Known Unknowns and an Agenda for Future Research
Langford, R., Bonell, C., Komro, K., Murphy, S., Magnus, D., Waters, E., Gibbs, L., & Campbell, R. (2017) · Health Education & Behavior · doi:10.1177/1090198116673800 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
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Oosterhoff, M., Joore, M., & Ferreira, I. (2016) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12446 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Drummy, C., Murtagh, E. M., McKee, D. P., Breslin, G., Davison, G. W., & Murphy, M. H. (2016) · Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health · doi:10.1111/jpc.13182 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Prinjha, S., Ricci-Cabello, I., Newhouse, N., & Farmer, A. (2020) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/15789 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“Interventions aimed at the general population tend to be less effective for Māori and Pasifika communities [28], possibly contributing to increased health inequalities [29].”
BackgroundVerbiest, M., Borrell, S., Dalhousie, S., Tupa'i-Firestone, R., Funaki, T., Goodwin, D., Grey, J., Henry, A., Hughes, E., Humphrey, G., et al. (2018) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/10789 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Rush, E., Reed, P., McLennan, S., Coppinger, T., Simmons, D., & Graham, D.
- Affiliations
- Auckland University of Technology (NZ)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Rush, Elaine
- Venue
- British Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-07-07
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 581-587
- ISSN
- 0007-1145 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2662
- OpenAlex
- W2058713922
- Cited by
- 93
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 8.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- British Journal Of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Tuwhera (Auckland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Health, New Zealand
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › School Health and Nursing Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Keywords
- childhood obesity, school-based intervention, nutrition education, physical activity promotion, body fat accumulation, blood pressure, rurality, social deprivation, ethnicity, sex differences, children aged 5-10, change agents, Waikato region
- MeSH terms
- Workforce, Adipose Tissue, Age Factors, Body Composition, Child, Child, Preschool, Diet, Female, Food Services, Health Promotion, Humans, Hypertension, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Motor Activity, New Zealand, Obesity, Rural Health, School Health Services, Sex Characteristics, Body Mass Index, Prevalence, Overweight
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