Αποτελεσματικές παρεμβάσεις κατά της παχυσαρκίας για παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας: σύγχρονες τάσεις

Abstract

Nowadays, childhood obesity is one of the most serious threats for the child’s physical and psychosocial health, and, as a result, researchers seek for effective interventions, in an effort to prevent and decrease the increasing trends of this phenomenon. Preschool age is a special developmental phase during which the child learns easily, assesses and applies practices possibly followed in future life. In this paper we present and analyze the most important aspects of the newly presented effective interventions worldwide, that have been applied and positively evaluated in a number of preschool children. Seven such interventions are included. Five of them were applied and evaluated in the USA, one of them in Germany and one in Australia. These interventions differed in duration, number of subjects included, and method of effectiveness evaluation. In all of their suggestions, researchers underlined the priority of the involvement of the child’s social context, with most important of all children’s family and school. Future’s research priority is, among others, to clarify the role of the aforementioned factors that varied in these interventions. It is essential that future programs are planned according to the specific age and culture of the child they address and to aim to more domains than simply personal change.