Intervención multi-componente en la prevención de la obesidad infantil como medida de salud pública

Abstract

Objective: it is proposed to identify and review potential strategies that include a multifaceted approach when dealing with obesity in school children. According to the most recent evidence, the most effective interventions to combat childhood obesity are those that involve physical activity, nutrition education, and supportive environments. Thus, in this review we focus on looking for such interventions, which also include monitoring in the medium and long term, monitoring and evaluation, which are critical to maintain effective action.
Material and methods: a review of scientific articles published in specialized databases such as Pubmed (Medline), the Cochrane Library, The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR), ScienceDirect, Scielo, The Cochrane Library Plus and the website of the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int).
Results: of 199 potential articles, only 8 were included in this review. The results showed that multi-component and long-term interventions have benefits on BMI, physical activity and food choices. However, few studies showed significant changes in general dietary habits and the prevalence of obesity. Also, it was observed that the multicomponent interventions that were carried out both in developing countries in Latin America, and in developed countries had similar results.

Conclusion: this review demonstrates that changes can occur on anthropometric measures, physical activityand food choices when multicomponent  interventions are carried out in environments at the level of primary academic education, regardless of geographical location, but maintaining similar methodology and materials.