A Community-Based Nutrition and Physical Activity Intervention for Children Who Are Overweight or Obese and Their Caregivers.

There is a need for efficacious interventions to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity, and a limited body of research suggests that collaborative community-based programs designed for children and their caregivers may be effective in reducing obesity rates. This paper reports the results of a community-based obesity intervention, South County Food, Fitness and Fun (SCFFF), designed for preadolescent children who are overweight or obese and their caregivers. SCFFF was developed in response to community concerns. Families were referred to the program by their physician and participated in the program at no cost. The 16-week intervention includes weekly group nutrition and physical activity sessions. Analyses determined that 65 out of the 97 children who completed SCFFF provided 2-year follow-up data and had reduced BMI z-scores over 2 years following the intervention. These participants decreased their energy, fat, carbohydrate, saturated fat, and sodium intake and increased core body strength and endurance from baseline to the end of the intervention. SCFFF was effective in reducing relative weight and improving diet and core muscle strength and endurance in children who are overweight or obese.

Long-term outcome of deceased donor renal transplants correlates with the 30-day creatinine reduction ratio.

A simplified model to correlate early allograft function with long-term allograft survival in recipients of deceased donor renal transplants (DDRT) remains challenging. We propose here a novel approach, using the change from the pretransplant creatinine to the 30-day posttransplant creatinine. The outcomes of 153 consecutive DDRT performed at our center between January 1998 and March 2001 were reviewed. The percentage change in creatinine from the pretransplant to 1 month posttransplant, termed here, the creatinine reduction ratio (CRR), was calculated as follows: (pretransplant creatinine-creatinine at 1 month)/pretransplant creatinine *100%. Patients were divided as follows: group 1 CRR>or=67% and group 2<67%. Group 1 had a graft survival at 1 and 5 years of 100% and 89.1% versus 88% and 69.1% for group 2 (log-rank p=0.0008). The risk ratio for graft loss during the follow-up period was four times lower for the patients on group 1. Using the Cox hazards model to compare CRR>or=67% with determinants of long-term outcome, the risk ratio of graft loss during the observational period was 0.26 (p=0.001). The creatinine reduction ratio, when stratified by a level of >or=67% has a strong correlation with superior long-term allograft survival in recipients of DDRT.