Abstract

Author(s): Hartwig dos Santos, Rochele da Silva1; Dandolini Saccon, Tatiana1; Doumid Borges Pretto, Alessandra2; Alberici Pastore, Carla2; Nunes Moreira, Ã?ngela1

Introduction: Obesity today represents an important public health problem e expand the number of obese patients treated in outpatient clinics of nutrition.

Objectives: This article aimed to evaluate the profile and body weight gain of obese patients seen in an outpatient nutrition southern Brazil, between January 2007 and June 2012.

Methods: Retrospective study using secondary data obtained from the medical records of obese patients of both genders, with age greater than or equal to 18 years, who attended at least two consultations in this health service. The outcome of the study was the percentage of variation in weight between the first and the last query in the period and the assessed variables were: age, diagnosis, number of consultations, intervention time, smoking and alcohol consumption current, intestinal function, practice of physical activity and BMI in the first and last visit. For statistical analyzes, were used tests of Chisquare, Kruskal Wallis and Bonferroni (Stata® 11.1), being considered significant values of p<0.05.

Results: The study sample consisted of 451 obese patients. Most patients (72.8 %) were female and only 2.8% attended the clinic for more than 24 months. About 76 % of patients experienced weight loss, and more than half the patients showed loss of up to 5 % of their initial weight. Moreover, the greater the number of queries and the time of intervention, the greater the percentage of weight loss (p<0.001).

Discussion: As well as in other studies, the increased demand for care in the outpatient clinic of nutrition was female and, although the time of intervention in nutrition service has been low, the majority of patients had weight loss, which represents a nutritional intervention regular.

Conclusion: Continuous nutritional intervention is needed to improve the nutritional status and promote quality of life for obese patients.