On Friday 8 May 2026 at 14:00, Mette Fogh defends her PhD dissertation entitled “Childhood Obesity Interventions in Denmark - Long-term Evaluation of Treatment, Prevention and Early Growth Trajectories”. 

Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of psychosocial and physical complications that often persist into adulthood. Despite extensive efforts across hospitals, municipalities, and early childhood settings, the long-term effectiveness of current interventions remains uncertain. New research from Aarhus University and Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus shows that while some interventions can reduce children’s BMI in the short term, lasting changes are difficult to achieve, and crucial weight trajectories are often established very early in life —highlighting the need for earlier and more coordinated prevention strategies that are supported by healthier everyday environments and structural conditions.

During her project, Mette Fogh, PhD student at Aarhus University and Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, investigated the long-term effectiveness of childhood obesity interventions implemented under real-world conditions in Denmark. Her dissertation, “Childhood Obesity Interventions in Denmark”, comprises three non-randomized intervention evaluations conducted in hospital-based treatment, municipality-based programs, and kindergartens, complemented by a systematic review of early childhood BMI and weight trajectories.
The hospital- and municipality-based studies show that individual, family-based interventions can achieve short-term reductions in BMI, particularly within specialized hospital care. However, these effects often attenuate over time, highlighting the challenges of sustaining weight changes once obesity is established. A universal prevention intervention carried out in kindergartens found no overall effect on BMI or risk of overweight. This is likely due to low intervention intensity and COVID-19-related disruptions. Nevertheless, the study identified a trend toward lower BMI among children from families with lower educational levels, indicating that early, universal interventions may hold potential for reducing social inequalities in health. The systematic review included in the dissertation demonstrates that early childhood BMI and weight trajectories are strong predictors of later anthropometric outcomes. High-stable and increasing weight patterns, as well as early adiposity rebound, are associated with an increased risk of overweight, higher BMI, and greater fat mass in childhood and adolescence. In contrast, decreasing or average-stable trajectories are associated with minimal later risk.

Taken together, the findings show that single-setting interventions are insufficient to alter entrenched BMI patterns once established. The research emphasizes the need for coordinated, early, and multi-level strategies that integrate treatment and prevention with supportive environments, community engagement, and broader structural and policy-level conditions that shape children’s everyday opportunities for healthy weight development.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place in Auditorium Verdensrummet (A201-170), Entrance A, Steno Diabetes Center, Aarhus University Hospital. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Mette Fogh
Mail: mefogh@rm.dk 
Phone: +45 50471317

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