Childhood obesity can be effectively treated through a family-based program provided through their local pediatrician, a new clinical trial says.
About 42 percent of kids in the program lost enough weight to improve their heart health and lower their diabetes risk within a year and a half, researchers reported July 27 in JAMA Pediatrics.
The program teaches families how to establish healthy eating and exercise habits, including positive reinforcement and supportive routines, researchers said.
“Our results show that an established, effective obesity treatment for children and adolescents can be successfully delivered in their pediatrician’s office,” lead researcher Amanda Staiano said in a news release. She is director of the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University.
“What makes this study especially meaningful is that we worked alongside healthcare practices and insurance providers to create a model that supports real-world delivery,” Staiano said.
“By building treatment into existing clinical teams, we demonstrated an approach that is sustainable well beyond a clinical trial and can expand access for families who need it most,” she added.
For the trial, researchers recruited more than 700 children with obesity across four states at 41 primary care practices and randomly assigned them to one of two groups.
One group received standard care, in which patients received counseling and medical management of their childhood obesity.
The other group received the same care plus up to 33 sessions with an expert trained in treating childhood obesity, typically a registered dietitian or behavioral health specialist.
Those sessions, attended by the child and a parent, focused on a family-based approach to treating obesity. Lessons included:
“Family-based behavioral treatment is a robust, evidence-based treatment that has been established and validated through more than four decades of research,” senior researcher Denise Wilfley said in a news release. She’s a professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.
“The critical question in this study was not whether family-based behavioral treatment can work in specialty research settings, but whether it can be integrated effectively and sustainably into the primary care settings where children and families already receive care,” Wilfley said. “The answer is yes.”
On average, families attended about 17 sessions, about half the total offered by the program. More than 75 percent of the sessions were delivered via telehealth.
However, the kids provided with family-centered care wound up losing more weight after a year, the study found.
Both groups started about 77 percent above a healthy weight. A year later, the family-based treatment group was down to 70 percent above a healthy weight, compared to 74 percent for those receiving standard care.
The gap continued to widen after the sessions ended. Six months later, 50 percent more kids in the family-centered care group had lost enough weight to improve their health than kids who got standard care.
“When children and parents develop skills together, and the home and social environments reinforce those changes, the benefits can extend across the household and support lasting change as the child grows,” Wilfley said.
Roughly half of the participating families were covered by Medicaid, and about 1 in 5 reported food insecurity, researchers said.
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“The study has shown that delivering lifestyle behavioral treatment for obesity to a diverse patient population can be successful in a primary care setting,” Dr. Sandra Hassink said in a news release. She is medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight.
“This is an important trial because health behavior and lifestyle treatment is the foundation for comprehensive obesity treatment,” added Hassink, who was not involved in the study.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 in 5 (or roughly 19.7 percent) of U.S. children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 have obesity. Non-Hispanic Black children have one of the highest obesity rates among racial/ethnic groups. CDC’s data also show a particularly high prevalence among Black girls. Childhood obesity can increase the risk of several health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and other health problems.
These disparities can be driven by a combination of social, economic, environmental, and healthcare factors that can influence opportunities to engage in health behaviors.
Clinical trials can be an opportunity for researchers to evaluate not just whether an intervention works, but who has access to it and whether it works across different communities.
RELATED: What Black Parents Should Know Before Joining a Clinical Trial
Clinical trials can test behavioral and lifestyle interventions in real-world settings. Researchers can study whether programs are accessible to families from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Trials can evaluate approaches delivered through pediatric practices, community organizations, schools, or remotely. Having a diverse group of participants is critical because researchers need evidence about how interventions perform across populations.
For Black families considering a childhood obesity program or clinical trial, asking how researchers are addressing culture, access, cost, and family needs can be just as important as understanding the treatment itself.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on family healthy weight programs.
SOURCE: Washington University in St. Louis, news release, July 23, 2026
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