The prevalence of obesity remains high among school age children and continues to rise among adolescents in the United States. One strategy to address this challenge is to use peer rather than professional leaders to run weight management programs. Youth peer-led lifestyle interventions have become increasingly common over the last few decades, but there is a lack of review and synthesis of these programs. The purpose of this manuscript was to critically review and synthesize results and lessons learned from evaluated youth peer-led lifestyle modification and weight management programs. We searched the PubMed/MEDLINE database to identify articles published between March 2002 and December 2015. We identified 29 interventions including children from kindergarten to 12th grade from different settings and racial/ethnic and economic backgrounds. We first summarized descriptive information about the interventions and then compared outcomes based on intervention type, peer leader characteristics and training, and other related factors. Our review indicated that youth peer-led interventions of varying structure and content can result in positive changes in behavioral influences, diet, physical activity, body measures and other clinical outcomes. We used information from our analysis to formulate recommendations for design of future youth peer-led lifestyle interventions.

在美国，学龄儿童的肥胖率仍然很高，青少年的肥胖率持续上升。应对这一挑战的一个策略是利用同行而不是专业领导者来运行体重管理计划。在过去的几十年里，青少年同伴主导的生活方式干预措施变得越来越普遍，但缺乏对这些计划的审查和综合。本手稿的目的是批判性地审查和综合从评估的青年同行主导的生活方式改变和体重管理计划中吸取的结果和教训。我们检索了 PubMed/MEDLINE 数据库，以确定 2002 年 3 月至 2015 年 12 月期间发表的文章。我们确定了 29 项干预措施，包括来自不同环境、种族/民族和经济背景的从幼儿园到 12 年级的儿童。我们首先总结了有关干预措施的描述性信息，然后根据干预类型、同伴领导特征和培训以及其他相关因素比较结果。我们的审查表明，青年同伴主导的不同结构和内容的干预措施可以导致行为影响、饮食、身体活动、身体测量和其他临床结果的积极变化。我们利用分析中的信息来制定未来青年同伴主导的生活方式干预措施的设计建议。