Randomized Trials in Epidemiology Response to Colleagues Postings

RESPONSE TO COLLEAGUES 1

Responses to Colleagues ‘Postings

Juliana O

This posting focuses on a randomized controlled trial assessing the effectiveness of aerobic training and diet programs as compared to diet only programs on selected coagulation biomarkers and sex hormones among obese postmenopausal women. The findings indicate that balanced diet combined with aerobic exercises were more effective than diet programs only on coagulation factors and fibrinolytic biomarkers. Other studies validate this finding – for instance, a study on postmenopausal women found that exercise only programs caused a 2.4 percent reduction in starting weight as compared to 8.5 percent for exercise and dietary combinations (Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, 2011). However, as the writer acknowledges in their limitations, the study’s focus on aerobic exercises only provides a narrow scope. In their study, Baak et al. (2021) found that studying the effects of exercise training alone was not enough. The study found that different types of physical exercises, such as resistance exercises, aerobic training, and high intensity workouts affect obesity-related biomarkers differently, (Baak et al., 2021). These findings point to a need to further study different forms of exercise to determine their effect on the selected sex hormones and biomarkers for obese postmenopausal Egyptian women.

Tamba

The high obesity rates among American Indians across all age groups validate the need for studies to analyze the most effective ways of reducing obesity rates among this group. The posting provides crucial insights on the vulnerabilities that face American Indians in comparison to other tribes in the US. However, a randomized controlled trial involves assigning subjects randomly to either an intervention group (which receives the intervention) or a control group (which receives the conventional or alternative treatment) (Kendall, 2003). Perhaps it would be beneficial to also focus on studies that analyze American Indians’ response to selected obesity-prevention programs. For instance, in one RCT, Rosenstock et al. (2020) assessed the effectiveness of a home visiting intervention focused on educating Native American parents on healthy diets and monitoring children’s diets in reducing the risk of childhood obesity. The study found that the home visiting program significantly reduced childhood obesity among Native American children in the intervention group (Rosenstock et al., 2020). Such insights, in my view, would effectively complement the analyzed study and inform effective obesity-prevention policies among Native American communities.

References

Baak, M., Pramono, A., Battista, F.,…& Oppert, J. (2021). Effect of Different Types of Regular Exercise on Physical Fitness in Adults with Overweight or Obesity: Systematic Review and Meta Analysis. Obesity Reviews, 22(54), Doi: org/10.1111/obr.13239