Almost a quarter of Australian children and adolescents are now classed as either overweight or obese. That poses a serious public health concern, especially since childhood weight problems often continue into adulthood, increasing the risk of heart disease, Type II diabetes, asthma and orthopaedic problems. Research conducted at UWA estimates that up to 80 per cent of children with weight problems have mothers who are either overweight or obese. UWA researchers are now trying to tackle the obesity epidemic from a new angle – by targeting treatment at overweight mothers of overweight children.

Research Fellow Dr Sue Byrne from the School of Psychology says there is a strong relationship between parental and child weight problems – and the children most at risk are those with two overweight parents. "Our study into childhood obesity has revealed that the role of the mother is very important. The best predictor of child weight was the weight of the mother. However, mothers were not always concerned about their children's weight, mainly because they were not aware that their children were overweight, or they underestimated how overweight they were."

"Of course, other factors are also very important. Genetic factors, family environment, and the family's socio-economic status all tend to be associated with childhood obesity," says Dr Byrne. "At UWA we have had positive results with overweight adults, using cognitive behavioural treatment. Using this treatment we can achieve good weight loss and maintenance of change over time. We are now extending our treatment programme to focus on overweight children, using their mothers as exclusive agents of change. We expect that this will have a positive effect on the child without actually having to expose the child to treatment."

The 12-week programme, to be launched in March, will involve a minimum of 30 mothers, though Dr Byrne is keen to recruit more. It will comprise weekly two hour sessions, and both mother and child will be assessed before and after treatment. Follow-ups will be conducted at three, six and twelve months. The programme will be run by Dr Lisa Gibson of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (TICHR) and Ms Clare Pigliardo of UWA's School of Psychology.

Dr Byrne says the idea for the new approach emerged during a major ongoing study, funded by Healthway and conducted jointly by UWA, the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children and TICHR. "The study has been running for four years now and we have more than 400 families involved. But we would like to recruit more, and we have applied for additional funding so that we can test some of our specific hypotheses."

For more information about participating in the forthcoming treatment programme for mothers and children, please call Lisa Gibson on 9489 7940 or email lisag@ichr.uwa.edu.au.