(P20-007-25) Impact of Added Structured Exercise and Nutrition at a Tertiary Pediatric Obesity Center

Objectives: A comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention to increase opportunity for exercise and nutrition is the foundation of Stony Brook’s Healthy Weight and Wellness Center (HWWC) and Fit Kid’s For Life program (FKFL). FKFL offers supervised exercise and hands-on nutrition. The purpose of this study is to perform a novel investigation in a tertiary pediatric obesity center to compare the effects of nutrition and exercise counseling versus counseling with the addition of supervised exercise and hands-on nutrition.

Methods: This retrospective study, conducted at a single pediatric obesity center, analyzed patients enrolled in the HWWC program with or without FKFL between January 2014 and December 2020. Inclusion criteria were patients aged 7-17, BMI ≥ 85th percentile for age and sex, and with at least 6 months of follow-up. Exclusion criteria were no follow-up within 6 months. The study included 40 HWWC patients, 20 with FKFL and 20 without, cohorts matched by age and sex. Pre- and post-treatment data on lab work (ALT, lipid panel, HbA1c, insulin, fasting glucose), blood pressure, heart rate, and anthropometrics were collected and analyzed using SPSS with t-tests.

Results: After participation in a 10-week session of FKFL and HWWC, systolic blood pressure significantly decreased (p = 0.035) compared to HWWC alone. When our patients were subdivided into two groups, children ages 7-12 and adolescents ages 13-17, a statistically significant ( p-value =0.037) decrease in systolic blood pressure was noted in children ages 7-12 but not in adolescents ages 13-17. No significant differences were found in diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, weight, BMI, ALT, or lipid panel. Body fat percentage and HbA1c decreased on average, but not significantly, in FKFL with HWWC participants.

Conclusions: Our study found that pediatric patients who participated in FKFL and HWWC had a statistically significant decrease of systolic blood pressure, and an average decrease in body fat percentage and HbA1C that was not statistically significant. The results suggest that supervised exercise may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, and MASLD.

Funding Sources: None