Effectiveness of a Randomized School-Based Intervention Involving Families and Teachers to Prevent Excessive Weight Gain among Adolescents in Brazil

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based intervention involving the families and teachers that aimed to promote healthy eating habits in adolescents; the ultimate aim of the intervention was to reduce the increase in body mass index (BMI) of the students. DESIGN Paired cluster randomized school-based trial conducted with a sample of fifth graders. SETTING Twenty classes were randomly assigned into either an intervention group or a control group. PARTICIPANTS From a total of 574 eligible students, 559 students participated in the study (intervention: 10 classes with 277 participants; control: 10 classes with 282 participants). The mean age of students was 11 years. INTERVENTION Students attended 9 nutritional education sessions during the 2010 academic year. Parents/guardians and teachers received information on the same subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENT Changes in BMI and percentage of body fat. RESULTS Intention-to-treat analysis showed that changes in BMI were not significantly different between the 2 groups (β = 0.003; p = 0.75). There was a major reduction in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and cookies in the intervention group; students in this group also consumed more fruits. CONCLUSION Encouraging the adoption of healthy eating habits promoted important changes in the adolescent diet, but this did not lead to a reduction in BMI gain. Strategies based exclusively on the quality of diet may not reduce weight gain among adolescents. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01046474.