Treatment of childhood obesity by retraining eating behaviour: randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine whether modifying eating behaviour with use of a feedback device facilitates weight loss in obese adolescents. Design Randomised controlled trial with 12 month intervention. Setting Hospital based obesity clinic. Participants 106 newly referred obese young people aged 9-17. Interventions A computerised device, Mandometer, providing real time feedback to participants during meals to slow down speed of eating and reduce total intake; standard lifestyle modification therapy. Main outcome measures Change in body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (SDS) over 12 months with assessment 18 months after the start of the intervention. Secondary outcomes were body fat SDS, metabolic status, quality of life evaluation, change in portion size, and eating speed. Results Using the last available data on all participants (n=106), those in the Mandometer group had significantly lower mean BMI SDS at 12 months compared with standard care (baseline adjusted mean difference 0.24, 95 % confidence interval 0.11 to 0.36). Similar results were obtained when analyses included only the 91 who attended per protocol (baseline adjusted mean difference 0.27, 0.14 to 0.41; P < 0.001), with the difference maintained at 18 months (0.27, 0.11 to 0.43; P=0.001) (n=87). The mean meal size in the Mandometer group fell by 45 g (7 to 84 g). Mean body fat SDS adjusted for baseline levels was significantly lower at 12 months (0.24, 0.10 to 0.39; P=0.001). Those in the Mandometer group also had greater improvement in concentration of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.043). Conclusions Retraining eating behaviour with a feedback device is a useful adjunct to standard lifestyle modification in treating obesity among adolescents.