The BRAVO Project

---

                Bambini e
                Ragazzi di
                AVellino contro
                     l’Obesità

Background and aim: The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing worldwide, raising a number of public health concerns. First, childhood obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity; second, the low long term success rate and the high social cost of the treatment of obesity suggest that attention should be paid to the prevention of obesity early in childhood.
Objective of the present study was to evaluate dietary habits and anthropometric factors in a sample of  schoolchildren aged 6-12 years living in Southern Italy in the framework of an ongoing  prospective study aimed to childhood obesity prevention.

Methods and results: The BRAVO Project is carried out in co-operation with the school staff and is a part of an educational program on nutrition for the schoolchildren and their families. During the first phase of the study, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was evaluated in 456 children adopting the criteria for definition of childhood obesity recently proposed by the International Obesity Task Force (Cole T J et al. BMJ 2000; 320: 1-6.). The main result of the study was that in our cohort an exceedingly high risk of becoming overweight in adult age was observed for any one-year age class.

                                

Conclusions: The results of the present study confirmed the trend toward an increasing  prevalence of childhood obesity observed in other Western countries. Moreover, our data -though preliminary- suggested that the large scale involvement of primary school in screening programs could represent an effective preventive strategy against the increased risk of childhood obesity.
 

G. Barba  et al., The BRAVO project: Screening for childhood obesity in a primary school setting. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2001;11(Suppl to No 4):103-108

---

The BRAVO Project team:

Gianvincenzo Barba, MD  (Co-ordinator)
Alfonso Siani, MD
Paola Russo, BSc
Claudia Grimaldi, BSc
Antonella Venezia, BSc
Miss Cristina Perillo

A special thank to: Rosalba Giacco MD, Giovanni LaSorella Mr, Marianna Di Dato Ms, Cecilia Marsiglia BSc, Ornella Russo Mrs, Delia Luongo BSc, Ersilia Troiano Ms, Gennaro Clemente MD
School staff
II Circolo Avellino: Mrs Rita Melchionne
Istituto Comprensivo Contrada: Mrs Consiglia Vecchione

---