NCT03615274

Executive Function Training in Childhood Obesity: Food Choice, Quality of Life and Brain Connectivity

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 46 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Barcelona · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 9 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study evaluates if executive function training in obese children can improve food-related choices and produce cognitive and neuroimaging changes, but also improve psychological and physical status and quality of life measures.

Detailed description

Based on the limited success of current behavioural weight-loss programmes and coupled with data on executive function deficiencies in obesity, this study aims to explore the impact of executive function training on food-related choices, cognitive and neuroimaging outcomes, but also on the psychological and physical status and quality of life measures. The specific hypotheses are: 1. Obese children undergoing the training programme will perform better than those receiving the control programme in cognitive, emotional state, physical activity and quality of life measures at the end of the intervention and follow-up at 12 months. 2. Obese children receiving the training programme will take better food-related decisions at the end of the intervention and follow-up at 12 months. 3. Obese children receiving the training programme will show changes in brain connectivity, which will be observable immediately at the end of the intervention and during the follow up period at 12 months. 4. There will be an association between changes in neuroimaging biomarkers and food choice, cognitive, emotional, physical and quality of life outcomes in individuals receiving training.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Executive function training	Home-based executive function training with adaptive difficulty, through Cogmed and Cognifit systems over 6 weeks (30-45 minuts/day, 5 days per week). Cognitive training will consist on working memory training (Cogmed, www.cogmed.com) and executive/inhibitory function training (Cognifit, www.cognifit.com).
OTHER	Psychoeducation	Learning basic healthy habits through daily Prezi presentations that include healthy food recommendations, funny receipts to families, ideas for exercising, emotion and behavioral management strategies, etc.
DEVICE	Placebo non-adaptive training	Executive function training with non-adaptive difficulty through Cognifit system over 6 weeks (30-45 minuts/day, 5 days per week). Exercices will be the same as the ones in the experimental group but minimizing the executive/working memory component and without incresing difficulty.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-02-05
• Primary completion: 2021-01-27
• Completion: 2021-01-27
• First posted: 2018-08-03
• Last updated: 2021-04-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain