Childhood obesity treatment: double blinded trial on dietary fibres (glucomannan) versus placebo.

Dietary fibres are frequently used for the treatment of paediatric obesity. The aim of this clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of glucomannan in the child obesity management. This experimental design was double blinded with a block randomisation, alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.2 and delta = 50%. The study involved 60 children under 15 years of age (mean age 11.2 years, mean overweight 46%), 30 of them under glucomannan treatment (1 g twice a day for two months) and 30 under placebo and the same schedule. The drug and the placebo were indistinguishable both for the family and the physician. During the two months study period the children followed a normocaloric diet evaluated every two weeks by a dietetic record book. At the beginning of the study the drug and the placebo groups were comparable in regards to anthropometric data. At the end, the mean overweight of the drug group was decreased from 49.5% to 41% and that of the placebo group from 43.9% to 41.7%. Both decreases were significant (p < 0.01), but no significant difference was observed between the drug and the placebo groups. The only significant difference concerned the lipid metabolism. The children under glucomannan treatment manifested a significant decrease of alpha-lipoprotein and an increase of pre-beta-lipoprotein and triglycerides; the children under placebo manifested only a decrease of triglycerides and apo beta-lipoprotein. We suggest that this metabolic alteration may derive from a primary decrease of alpha-lipoprotein, most likely because of an inadequate water intake.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)