Obesity Prevention

Obesity Prevention

Introduction

Obesity is among the major contributors to the global burden of diseases. Obesity increases the risk of individuals developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and cancer. Obesity and its comorbid diseases as well as a complication related to obesity increase the cost of care among the patients (Kaveh & Peyrovi, 2019). Besides, health care systems utilize many health care resources in the management of diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and diabetes, which are highly related to obesity. Prevention of obesity is the prevention of other comorbid conditions mentioned above. The prevention of obesity requires several health care interventions and policy changes that aim at impacting lifestyle, dietary practices, and environmental factors. The health care providers need to advocate for the development of public health-based approaches that will help in reducing body weight, increase the physical activities, and focusing on healthy dietary practices among the people in the communities. This paper presents the comparison of various studies concerning obesity with respect to research questions, sample population, limitations of the study, and recommendations for further research.

Research questions

Puente & Martinez (2018) conducted a study with the aim of determining the most effective strategies that can be applied among adults who are obese to reduce obesity and enhance health and wellness.  The research is a systematic review, which was performed through the analysis of the various reviews using different databases. Another study, which was done by Bales & Porter Starr (2018), also aimed at identifying the most effective and efficient interventions that can be applied among the elderly persons to help in preventing obesity. The study venture into specific health care interventions, which include loss of diets, which contained high levels of proteins and restriction of calories. The same researched observed different health outcomes from the elderly participants who were obese and after being put into different diets.

The study aimed at determining the health care providers’ experience in the education and delivery of interventions, which focused on the nutrition and lifestyle changes among adult patients with obesity within community health facilities. The research findings indicated that the nurses have varied experiences that greatly influence the delivery of the interventions to obsess patients. Besides, the research identified numerous factors that affect the effectiveness of interventions delivered by the nurses as well as their relationship with the nurses during the provision of the nursing interventions that aim at preventing obesity.

Sample populations

The study that aimed at determining the experience of nurses in the delivery of interventions that prevent obesity in the community health facilities utilized the health care providers as their participants for the study. The study entailed health care professionals, such as registered nurses in the health facilities. The systematic review study conducted by Puente & Martinez (2018), had an analysis of different research with different populations. In the study, the researcher included the online interventions, face-to-face, group as well as the individual interventions that were targeted on reducing overweight and obesity among the elderly persons. Besides, the study included the studies with participants who were in different modes and interventions of obesity management such as prevention of obesity, surgical management, pharmacologic management. The participants ranged from teenagers, children, postpartum mothers, pregnant women to elderly persons.

The study eliminated individuals with other conditions that are associated with obesity, such as anorexia, bulimia, and individuals who were using a specific type of food (Dietz et al., 2019). Majority of the studies that were reviewed aimed at analyzing the various interventions that can be used in the prevention and management of obesity. The interventions focused on include physical activity, behavioral therapy, and dietary management.

Limitation of the study

Different studies had different limitations. One of the common limitations for the majority of the studies is the limitation of published research studies that aimed at preventing obesity. Therefore, the majority of the articles were eliminated from the review. The second is that the studies talked about the physical activity without mentioning the types of exercises that the participants involved themselves to reduce obesity (Adab et al., 2018). Besides, the studies talked about dietary restrictions without mentioning the recommended nutrients and non-recommended nutrients that help in preventing obesity.

Conclusion

According to the literature review, the majority of obese adults can benefit the most from the interventions such as physical activity, behavioral change, and dietary modification. Besides, the review indicated that weight management and consumption of diets rich in proteins help in moderating the body weight. Nevertheless, the studies have not indicated the types of nutrients that people with obesity can consume and those that can be avoided to prevent obesity. On the other hand, the review should that different health care professionals such as the physicians and nurses have different experiences in the implementation of interventions that prevent obesity among the patients.

Recommendations

More research must be conducted on the recommendable and non-recommendable nutrients that will help in preventing obesity. Besides, further research should be undertaken to assist in identifying the most benefiting strategies and interventions that can be used in managing patients with obesity.

References

Adab, P., Barrett, T., Bhopal, R., Cade, J. E., Canaway, A., Cheng, K. K., … & Ekelund, U. (2018). The West Midlands ActiVe lifestyle and healthy Eating in School children (WAVES) study a cluster randomized controlled trial testing the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a multifaceted obesity prevention intervention program targeted at children aged 6-7 years. Health technology assessment (Winchester, England), 22(8), 1.

Bales, C. W., & Porter Starr, K. N. (2018). Obesity interventions for older adults: diet as a determinant of physical function. Advances in Nutrition, 9(2), 151-159.

Dietz, W. H., Belay, B., Bradley, D., Kahan, S., Muth, N. D., Sanchez, E., & Solomon, L. (2019). A model framework that integrates community and clinical systems for the prevention and management of obesity and other chronic diseases. Washington, DC: National Academy of Medicine.

Kaveh, O., & Peyrovi, H. (2019). Exploring Iranian obese women’s perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of self-management of obesity: A qualitative study. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(11), 3538.

Puente, J. M. G., & Martínez-Marcos, M. (2018). Overweight and obesity: effectiveness of interventions in adults. Enfermería Clínica (English Edition), 28(1), 65-74.