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Review Article

For whom and under what circumstances do school-based energy balance behavior interventions work? Systematic review on moderators

, , , , , , & show all
Pages e46-57 | Received 07 Jul 2010, Published online: 09 Jun 2011
 

Abstract

The aim of this review was to systematically review the results and quality of studies investigating the moderators of school-based interventions aimed at energy balance-related behaviors. We systematically searched the electronic databases of Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane, PsycInfo, ERIC and Sportdiscus. In total 61 articles were included. Gender, ethnicity, age, baseline values of outcomes, initial weight status and socioeconomic status were the most frequently studied potential moderators. The moderator with the most convincing evidence was gender. School-based interventions appear to work better for girls than for boys. Due to the inconsistent results, many studies reporting non-significant moderating effects, and the moderate methodological quality of most studies, no further consistent results were found. Consequently, there is lack of insight into what interventions work for whom. Future studies should apply stronger methodology to test moderating effects of important potential target group segmentations.

Acknowledgements

The contribution of MY was funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF grant 2008/65), the contribution of MVS was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw 121.520.002). The ENERGY-project is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme (CORDIS FP7) of the European Commission, HEALTH (FP7-HEALTH-2007-B). The content of this article reflects only the authors’ views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.