UB Knightlines Spring 2013

The UB Knightlines newsletter for Spring 2013. This issue contains articles discussing alumni and their continued relationship with the University, a new cross disciplinary graduate program between design and business, students report on the University's SNAP Challenge, UB Career Day, a SGA hosted event about gun violence with a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting, a memorial scholarship for Lauren Gabrielle Rousseau who died during the Sandy Hook shooting, the School of Engineering partnering the NASA on a satellite launch, Fones recieving a Health Resources and Services Administration grant, the renaming of the International College to College of Public and International Affairs, the Innovators series at UB, the renaming of Arnold Bernhard Center gallery to the Schelfhaudt Gallery, a 1941 alum of Junior College of Connecticut Fanny Gabriel, works of faculty members, alumni news, an alumni reunion in Malaysia, the annual Alumni Soccer Game, the Volleyball team winning the East Coast Conference, the death of UB Soccer coach Fran Bacon, UB Soccer goalkeeper Julia Hansson being named to the 2012 Capital One National Academic All-America Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), UB alums playing professional sports world-wide, and other campus and sports news

A weight-management camp followed by weekly after-school lifestyle education sessions as an obesity intervention for Qatari children: a prospective cohort study

Background Weight-management camp interventions for obese children are eff ective for short-term weight loss. However, there is little evidence indicating how gains made with such interventions can be maintained in the longer term. The present prospective cohort study investigated eff ectiveness of an intervention consisting of a weightmanagement camp followed by weekly lifestyle education sessions. Methods Obese children from eight Qatari schools participated in the intervention from Jan 27 to May 20, 2015. It started with a 2 week weight-management camp involving physical and social activities, lifestyle learning, and dietary control. Participants then attended school as usual for 3 weeks. Ten, weekly after-school club sessions were then held, each lasting 2 h, involving further lifestyle education and engagement of participants’ parents, with the aim of encouraging consolidation of learning that had taken place at the camp, and continuation of healthy behaviours. A control group of obese children from the same Qatari schools received no intervention. The primary outcome variable was body-mass index SD scores (BMI SDS). Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to assess changes in BMI SDS. Informed consent was obtained from participants and their parents. Ethics approval was granted by the Qatar University Institutional Review Board. Findings 56 children (42 girls) aged 9–13 years (mean 10·9, SD 1·1) took part in the intervention. BMI SDS ranged from 1·17 to 4·00 (mean 2·51, SD 0·62). The control group consisted of 37 children (27 girls) aged 8–12 years (mean 10·3, SD 1·1) with BMI SDS 1·40–3·98 (2·78, 0·43). Between the start of camp and the end of the clubs, there was no signifi cant change in control group BMI SDS (mean –0·004, SD 0·29; p=0·784), but signifi cant reduction in the intervention group BMI SDS (–0·10, 0·20; p=0·0003). Signifi cant BMI SDS reduction occurred for the intervention group during weight-management camp (–0·13, 0·12; p<0·0001) and after-school club (–0·12, 0·19; p<0·0001) stages; signifi cant BMI SDS increase occurred between these stages (0·15, 0·16; p<0·0001). Interpretation This small-sample study suggests that weekly lifestyle education sessions can be eff ective in helping to sustain weight-loss achievements from more intensive childhood obesity interventions. Half of the intervention group achieved an overall BMI SDS reduction of at least 0·10, which has been shown to be associated with important reductions in insulin and total cholesterol. Funding This research was supported by the National PrioritieNational Priorities Research Program Qatar Foundation (grant X-036-3–01)

Testing a multicomponent lifestyle intervention for combatting childhood obesity

Childhood obesity is a major global health concern. Weight-management camps involving delivery of a program of physical activity, health education, and healthy eating are an effective treatment, although post-intervention weight-management is less well understood. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of a weight-management camp followed by a community intervention in supporting weight-management for overweight children and children with obesity. Participants were overweight Qatari schoolchildren or schoolchildren with obesity, ages 8-14 years, (n = 300) recruited over a three-year period across 14 randomly selected schools in the Doha area. They attended a two-week weight management camp, then a 10-week program of weekly lifestyle education and physical activity sessions, which also included behavior change techniques. The programme was cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-focused with a strong element of behavioural economics blended in. Participants saw a significant BMI SDS reduction as a result of the entire intervention (camp + education and activity sessions) both at the individual (p < 0.0001) and cluster/school (p = 0.0002) levels, and weight loss occurred during each intervention stage separately for the camp (p < 0.0001 for both the individual and cluster/school levels) and the lifestyle education and activity phase (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0220 at the individual and cluster/school levels, respectively). Weekly lifestyle education and activity sessions which include behavior change techniques may be useful in promoting continued weight management in the period following intensive, immersive childhood obesity interventions