A study conducted in collaboration with researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center found that traditional in-clinic health counseling for parents about children’s eating habits, playtime and exercise combined with text messaging and other electronic feedback Doing so can protect young children from obesity and potentially lifelong obesity-related problems.
The research was led by Eliana Perrin, MD, Distinguished Professor of Primary Care at the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health, and its findings are published in JAMA.
Decades of research show that obesity in early childhood significantly increases the lifetime risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other serious diseases, especially among low-income and minority populations.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 school-age children were obese from 2017 to 2018, and this rate has increased during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
