Article Text
PDF
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Big fat camp
There are many depressing things about the current epidemic of childhood obesity. One of these is that most interventions tested to date simply do not work. As Norway has some of the lowest obesity rates in international comparisons there will be those who wonder whether an intervention trial conducted there has generalisability; but the findings, yet again, that a plausible and rational approach to treatment has no benefit over conventional outpatient management are all too likely to be generally true. As Benestad et al report, the Camp-based Family Treatment of Childhood Obesity was intensive, prolonged (2 years) and multi-modal, so it was also expensive: another example of how important it is to evaluate plausible ideas rigorously, and publish the negative results, so that cash-strapped services do not waste money on ineffective treatments. See page 303
Win-win for immunisation
If obesity is professionally depressing, then one thing to lighten the mood should be immunisation, one of the great medical triumphs of recent times. Garon and Patel explain developments in polio immunisation world-wide. As wild-type polio has virtually disappeared, the tiny proportion of cases associated with the live oral vaccine has become much …
Linked Articles
- Review
- Global child health
- Editorial
- Original article
- Original article
- Original article
- Original article