Abstract

Author(s): Sabadini Piva, Laura; Reig García-Galbis, Manuel

Introduction: according to the increasing prevalence of obesity in childhood and / or adolescence, there should be enough intervention programs to combat it.

Objective: To identify and compare different types of intervention programs in children and adolescents for the treatment of overweight and obesity in Spain and other countries.

Method: A search was performed using the keywords “Obesity” AND “Diet” AND “intervention" in three document databases: PubMed, EBSCO, Scielo. Inclusion criteria: age of the sample (2-17 years based on the enKid study) that the intervention program included diet, clinical trials published between January 2010 and April 2014, the source journals are indexed.

Results: We analyzed 490 articles, of which only 13 were selected. 85% of intervention programs are applied outside Spain; only 23% were performed in school environment; 70% of the procedures were performed in children under 12 years; 62% of research include the use of multidisciplinary intervention (diet, exercise and sometimes behavioral changes); and an oscillation of 3 to 24 months is shown in these interventions.

Discussion: we found just a few national interventions in obese participants and there are two types of interventions, short- and long-term.

Conclusions: We recommend intervention programs to promote weight loss in Spain, especially in schools. The exclusive use of diet has been proven being effective in the short term. And long-term, multidisciplinary intervention outperforms loss, especially fat mass.