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A study published online in the British Medical Journal suggests that counseling from a primary care physician (PCP) does not aid in weight loss among overweight children or improve their physical activity levels, MedPage Today reports. To evaluate the effectiveness of PCP counseling, researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia surveyed nearly 4,000 children ages 5 to 9 who visited PCPs in the Melbourne area. The researchers then selected 258 overweight and obese children to either receive routine care or participate in a 12-week intervention consisting of four consultations with PCPs at which they and their families established goals for changing eating habits, increasing physical activity, reducing sedentary behaviors and increasing water consumption. However, at six-month and one-year follow-up visits there were no significant differences between the two sets of children in terms of body mass index, waist circumference, overall nutrition, physical activity, and quantities of fruits, vegetables, fat and water consumed. Although the researchers concede that there were no detrimental effects associated with participation in the intervention group, they noted that the program’s cost, which averaged $1,100 per child, was far higher than that of traditional care, which averaged $64 per child. The researchers concluded that “these findings cast doubt on many countries’ current policies that support universal surveillance coupled with brief, individualized secondary prevention by the primary sector to reduce childhood obesity.” They suggest instead that resources for reducing childhood overweight and obesity be divided between improved community- and population-level prevention efforts and enhanced clinical treatment options for children diagnosed with obesity (Neale, MedPage Today, 9/4/09; Wake et al., British Medical Journal, 9/3/09).