| Methods |
Design: four group parallel trial
Purpose: examine the effect of rapid versus gradual scheduling of behavioural weight reduction programme |
| Participants |
Patients: obese children
Baseline comparability: yes |
| Interventions |
Placebo: discussion and relaxation sessions
Untreated: no sessions (waiting list)
Experimental: sessions with rapid versus gradual scheduling of a behavioural weight reduction programme
(Co‐intervention: NS) |
| Outcomes |
Weight (kg)
% overweight
Subcapsular skin fold thickness
Normal % skin fold thickness
Caloric intake
Activity output
Expectancy and programme evaluation ratings |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
High risk |
Not described as double‐blind (placebo/behavioural programme) |
| Blinding?
Outcome assessor |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
High risk |
Drop‐out > 15% or NS |
| Free of selective reporting? |
Unclear risk |
No protocol available |
| Free of other bias? |
Low risk |
|
| No signs of variance inequality or skewness? |
Low risk |
No variance inequality (F‐test not statistically significant) and no skewness (1.64 standard deviations does not exceed the mean) |
| Trial size > 49? |
High risk |
N = 21 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
High risk |
Trial size < 49 |
