Grant: Operating Grant

Rates of obesity in Canadian children have increased 3 fold over the last 3 decades; 27% of Canadian children are now overweight or obese. We now understand that these children have health problems relating to their obesity as children and into adulthood. These health risks have resulted in urgent calls to prevent obesity AND to improve the care of children who are overweight. While we have a few studies that tell us that weight management programs can work over the short term, we know that not all children respond the same to these programs - and many do not respond at all. We also do not know if these programs can induce changes beyond 6 months to 1 year. The Canadian Pediatric Weight management Registry (CANPWR) is a study designed to address these questions in weight management programs across Canada, and a small,pilot study has begun. We plan to enroll 1600 children over 2 years across 8 leading Canadian weight management programs. The participants will begin the study as they enter one of the weight management programs and will be followed for at least 3 years. We will collect information about the child's health status (body measurements and metabolic health including sugar metabolism and cholesterol levels) and we will seek to understand what causes variation in health status by examining potential causes or determinants. These determinants may be individual, family or program type determinants. Most importantly, we will measure changes in health status over time and potential reasons why some experience change and some do not. This information is expected to help us design programs best suited to improving the health of individuals and families.