Does Long-term Equine Assisted Learning have an Effect on Childhood WeightManagement?

Abstract

In the United States, overweight and obesity have been described as an epidemic. Unfortunately, the current weight management interventions are not able to reverse the continual increase in the weight of the United States citizens. Appearing unrelated, New York State is the home to more than 200,000 horses, most of them used for pleasure purposes. There is a growing body of knowledge identifying how the horse can have a positive impact on the health and wellness of people. Objective: This prospective cohort pilot study was designed to examine the impact of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) on long-term weight management during childhood. Methods: Seventeen overweight and obese female children, 7 to 12 years of age participated in a year-long program that met for 27 sessions with total contact time of 93 hours. Results: There was a trend for change in body fat to be associated with both baseline (BL) body weight (r=0.53, p=0.06) and age (r=0.55, p=0.10). Mean BL height and body weight of the first (n=5) and second (n=8) cohorts differed (59.5 ± 1.1 vs. 53.8 ± 5.8 in, p=0.05 and 129.8 ± 14.2 vs. 101.0 ± 21.0 lb, p=0.02, respectively), and children in the first cohort tended to be older (10.3 ± 1.2 vs. 9.3 ± 0.5 year, p=0.09), and thus analyzed separately. Mean sedentary time at BL for the 2 cohorts was 18.6 ± 6.7 h/wk, and was reduced to 14.6 ± 10.7 h/wk by year 1 (p=0.097 for time). There were clearly decreases over time in sweetened drink and fat consumption for both cohorts (p=0.004 for both variables). Conclusion: Results from the two separate cohorts of the Healthy as a Horse (HaaH) pilot study demonstrate a unique opportunity to further examine the use of the horse as a tool to assist in the continued development of effective programs to prevent, identify and treat childhood overweight and obesity.