Bone Abstracts

Objectives: The obesity in children and adolescents is in an exponential rise, particularly in the United States. New research indicates that high adiposity could be detrimental for both bone and muscle, via fat infiltration in those tissues, leading to the osteosarcopenic obesity¹. Therefore, healthy weight in children is crucial for bones and muscles. Our objective was to develop a music therapy program to improve children’s dietary and exercise habits and by that promote healthy weight and bones.

Methods: We report the results of three pilot studies conducted in children ages 6–9 years, where the original music intervention, including custom composed music and educational lyrics with drumming and singing were combined with jumping, running and calisthenics. The studies included 78 children, mostly African Americans, mostly overweight or obese and each intervention lasted 6 weeks, three times/week, 45 min/session. Anthropometrics were measured and behavioral attitudes and knowledge about healthy life styles were assessed.

Results: The first study (n=7) resulted in slight decrease in BMI and improved attitudes about exercise and healthy eating. Second study (n=42) showed gains in knowledge and attitude about food and exercise, but anthropometries were inconclusive, due to low ratio of researchers to children and probably unreliable measurements. The third study (n=29) resulted in decreased BMI and waist circumference by ~5% and 0.9 cm respectively. The results for children’s nutritional knowledge showed increase of 0.16 points for eating habits and 0.83 points for information on food taught during intervention. The children’s attitude toward school increased and they consistently expressed positive views about music intervention. Finally, the behavior analysis indicated a decrease in off-task behavior of 2.1% during the intervention.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to use structured and active music-making in children for their diet and exercise improvement. The music activities showed to be useful and motivational and promoted positive behavior, team spirit and increased on-task behavior. For the authors, a special symbolism presents the possibility of presenting this study in Salzburg, a birthplace of one of the greatest composers of all times. Supported in part by Tanita grant

Reference

Ilich JZ, Kelly OJ, Inglis JE, Panton LP, Duque G, Ormsbee MJ. Interrelationship among muscle, fat, and bone: Connecting the dots on cellular, hormonal, and whole body levels. Ageing Res Rev 2014 15 51–60.

Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.