1 OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE ADOLESCENTS IN GREECE. A STUDY PROTOCOL OF THE FEEDING-EXERCISE TRIAL IN ADOLESCENTS (FETA) Anna Patsopoulou, George Rachiotis, Antonis Katsioulis, Paschalis Adam Molyvdas, Christos Hadjichristodoulou

2 Introduction-Description  Obesity: is a common but often underestimated condition of clinical and public health importance all over the world is an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality 1.  Adolescence is a period of major physical and cognitive change and it has been considered as a "critical period" for the development of adult obesity.  Adolescents with established overweight or obesity have a moderate to substantial risk of remaining so in adulthood 2.  In Greece several studies have been conducted on the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children.  On the contrary, only few studies investigate the prevalence of obesity among adolescents 3-6. The FETA programme has the following aims: a)To investigate the prevalence of obesity and the risk factors among adolescents years old and their parents. b)To compare and evaluate the efficacy of two different clinical interventions among overweight and obese adolescents.

3 FETA: The study consisted of two parts Part 1. Descriptive study  816 adolescents aged 12 to18 in public schools of Larissa took part.  Measures: height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and cardiac rate, parental authority and motivation, and last, information on dietary and exercise habits of the adolescents and their parents.  Used 3 questionnaires: 1.The modified version of Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) 7,8 2.The modified version of Parent-Initiated Motivational Climate Questionnaire-2 (PIMCQ-2) 9 3.The modified version of the Family Eating and Activity Habits Questionnaire (FEAHQ) 10-12

4 Part 2.Intervention Program (Clinical Trial)  Two different interventions groups and one control group were employed: the 1st group participated in an exercise program, the 2nd group participated in a combined dietary and exercise program, and  Each group comprised of 50 individuals, aged 12 to 18, of both sexes.  Measures: height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and cardiac rate, speed trial (10x5m, Eurofit) and last, information on dietary and exercise habits of the adolescents and their parents.  The modified version of the Family Eating and Activity Habits Questionnaire (FEAHQ) was used.  duration of the program: six months

5 CONCLUSIONS  It is expected that the results of the study will provide useful information about the effectiveness of preventive interventions among overweight and obese adolescents.  The environment of children has drastically changed in all over the world during the last decades as reflected in unhealthy dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle. Our goal was to identify how parental feeding and exercise practices influence the life style of their children and either the mother or the father influenced their more.  The proposed FETA programme could be used by health professionals inside schools to identify adolescent at high risk for obesity from early life. This simple and inexpensive programme could be useful in assisting obesity in the adolescents preventing initiatives.

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