Probiotic therapy outcomes in body composition of children and adolescent with obesity, a nonrandomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of probiotic supplementation therapy on anthropometric values and body composition of children and adolescent with obesity. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This is a nonrandomized controlled, prospective, double-blind interventional clinical trial with primary data analysis. The sample comprised 44 pubertal children and adolescent (8-17 years old) with obesity. The patients were allocated to probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus) or placebo group, with matching of gender and chronological age. Both groups received nutritional guidance, and were followed for six months. In all patients the anthropometric assessment was carried out by a nutritionist and data on weight, height and waist circumference (WC) were collected. Body composition was assessed using dual emission X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). RESULTS: After six months, both groups had increased weight, height but reduced body index mass (BMI) standard deviation score, with no differences between groups. After the intervention, both groups showed a reduction in the percentage of total body fat and an increase in lean mass, but only the placebo group showed a reduction in the percentage of trunk fat. However, the variation in these parameters did not differ between groups. CONCLUSIONS: The probiotic group does not seem to have benefited from supplementation. However, we suggest that this reduction in BMI SDS in both groups may have occurred due to improvements in diet because of the nutritional advice given throughout the therapy. We concluded that supplementation with this strain of probiotic was not effective in promoting weight loss or improving the body composition of this population.