Multidisciplinary programs for obesity treatment in Brazil: A systematic review

ABSTRACT This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of publications addressing the multidisciplinary treatment of obesity in Brazil and analyze their main results. A search was conducted in the databases SciELO, Lilacs, and Pubmed/Medline using the following search terms: 'obesidade', 'intervenção', 'tratamento', 'Brasil', for the search in Portuguese, and 'obesity', 'intervention', 'treatment', 'Brazil', for the search in English. Based on these terms, the following combination of words was used: 'Intervenção multiprofissional da obesidade', 'tratamento multidisciplinar da obesidade, tratamento multiprofissional da obesidade' and 'multidisciplinary obesity intervention', 'multidisciplinary obesity treatment', 'Multiprofessional obesity treatment'. Inclusion criteria were as follows: original studies carried out in Brazil involving human beings and that reported an intervention including two or more health care professionals. Articles published between January 2005 and July 2015 were analyzed independently by two reviewers. At the end of the analysis, out of 355 articles initially selected, 26 met all inclusion criteria. The following results were found: 23 studies involved children and adolescents and 03 involved adults 20-60 years of age. It was also found that the 26 studies analyzed had an impact on anthropometric parameters, 10 on physical fitness parameters, 16 on biochemical parameters, 10 on the reduction in comorbidities, 6 on nutritional parameters, and 4 on the psychological/social aspects. Based on evidence presented in the studies reviewed, it can be said that the multidisciplinary treatment for obesity greatly contributed to the reduction in the anthropometric indicators, especially BMI and the biochemical, social, and psychological parameters. Thus, these findings demonstrate that there is a need to expand the range of this type of treatment since it has proven to be effective in the fight against obesity and its comorbidities.