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To the Editor: Ms Savoye and colleagues¹ described a randomized controlled trial studying the effects of a weight management program on body composition and metabolic parameters in overweight children. The results were reported as changes in the means and standard deviations for the intervention and control groups. Although the results suggest a benefit of the intervention, it is difficult to derive useful information such as a number needed to treat (NNT) from these results.

The evidence-based medicine literature² suggests that the results of randomized controlled trials should be interpreted, at least in part, based on NNT. It would therefore be helpful if the authors would present the number or proportion of children in each study group whose outcome variables (such as body mass index [BMI] and lipid levels) improved by some clinically significant amount. In this situation, reporting how many patients in the control and intervention group improved (or worsened) . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Paul C. Young, MD
paul.young@hsc.utah.edu
University of Utah School of Medicine
Salt Lake City

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