BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Obesity
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1669107
Comparing the Impact of In-Person versus Virtual 10-Week Family-Based Childhood Obesity Management Program on Anthropometric, Cardiometabolic, and Mental Health Outcomes
Provisionally accepted
- 1BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada
- 2Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Food, Nutrition and Health, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- 3McGill University School of Human Nutrition, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Canada
- 4McMaster University Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine, Hamilton, Canada
- 5Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
- 6Generation Health Clinic, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada
- 7The University of British Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Vancouver, Canada
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Objectives: To compare differences in patient outcomes in individuals living with overweight and obesity who attended a 10-week multidisciplinary program delivered virtually versus participants who completed the program in-person. Methods: Data from 27 youth (8-18 years old) who attended virtual programming were matched by sex and body mass index (BMI) z-scores to youth who completed in-person programming. Changes in anthropometric, biomarkers (glucose, lipids and liver enzymes) and mental health (Beck Youth Inventories, Second Edition; "BYI-2") were compared across groups. Results: BMI z-scores did not differ between groups (p=0.88). Cardiometabolic measurements showed no significant differences at 10-weeks for any parameter, and there were no significant differences in BYI-2 T-scores across groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: The mode of delivery of a pediatric multidisciplinary family-based program was not associated with significant differences in participant outcomes, suggesting that both modes of delivery are effective.
Keywords: Pediatric Obesity, Health behaviours, virtual program, Cardiometabolic markers, BYI-II
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cohen, Heidl, Sun, Faustini, Gierc and Bains. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tamara Rebecca Cohen, tamara.cohen@ubc.ca
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