Promoting physical activity through walking to treat childhood obesity, mainly for mild to moderate obesity.

BACKGROUND: There are no randomized controlled trials examining the effect of walking on childhood obesity. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted between August 2014 and April 2015 in Japan. Elementary school children aged 6 to 12 years with a percent overweight (%OW) of >/=20% were recruited. One hundred ninety children wanted to participate in the program, and all were accepted to participate in the intervention program. After viewing a video which promoted physical activity through walking, participants were randomly assigned to three groups: walking (>/=10,000 steps on school holidays), limiting screen time (ST) ( /=20%. RESULTS: The mean %OW was 35+/-7% before intervention. The mean reduction in %OW after intervention in the walking (n=59), limiting ST (n=46), and control (n=51) groups were -4.06+/-4.84, -1.97+/-4.62, and -1.81+/-3.64 percentage points, respectively. Reduction in %OW was significantly larger in the walking group (adjusted mean difference, -2.18 percentage points [95% confidence interval, -3.85 to -0.52], P = 0.002) than in the control group. The intervention in children also had favourable effects on the lifestyles of their parents. The intention-to-treat analysis of all 190 participants showed comparable results. CONCLUSION: Promoting physical activity through walking on school holidays may be an additional strategy for treating elementary school children with obesity.