About the PANIC Study

Design and participants 

The Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study is an ongoing 8-year controlled physical activity and dietary intervention study in a large population sample of children who have been followed retrospectively since pregnancy and prospectively until adolescence and will finally be followed until early adulthood (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01803776).

We invited 736 children 6–8 years of age from the city of Kuopio, Finland, in the baseline examinations carried out in 2007-2009, and 512 (70% of those invited) of the children participated. We excluded six children from the study at baseline because of physical disabilities that could hamper participation in the intervention or no time or motivation to attend in the study. We divided the remaining 506 children in the physical activity and dietary intervention group (306 children) and the control group (200 children). The intervention included six physical activity and dietary counseling sessions during the 2-year follow-up (0.5, 1.5, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months after baseline).

We invited the 506 participants of the baseline examinations for the 2-year follow-up examinations carried out in 2009-2011, and 440 (87%) of them participated. The intervention included seven physical activity and dietary counseling sessions between the 2-year and 8-year follow-up (24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, and 96 months after baseline).

We have invited all 440 participants of the 2-year follow-up examinations to the 8-year follow-up examinations carried out between February 2016 and December 2017. Given the current participation rate, about 300 of the adolescents (about 70% of those invited) are expected to participate