HEALTH STRATEGY FOR AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH FOR MORBIDLY OBESE PATIENTS (IMC 40 AND OVER) ‘STEP BY STEP; TOWARDS A BIG CHANGE’

Abstract

‘Obesity is a chronic disease, with a very high and increasing prevalence, which has a complex aetiopathogenesis and causes multiple comorbidities of high premature mortality, therefore, it represents an urgent health demand’ (Argentine Society of Nutrition [SAN], 2020, p.1).

In Latin America, the proportion of overweight and obese adults has increased significantly in recent decades (4° National Survey of Risk Factors, 2019, p. 127).

In Argentina, the prevalence of overweight and obesity over the years shows a clear upward trend in all age and social groups, particularly in the most socially vulnerable groups. (4° National Survey of Risk Factors, 2019, p. 127).

With regard to morbid obesity, considered as such when a person's overweight interferes with basic physical functions such as breathing and walking, researchers estimate that it currently affects around 1% of men worldwide and 2% of women (The Lancet, Volume 38 , Issue 10026 , 1377 - 1396.).

Given its magnitude and importance, obesity is considered a public health problem, which requires the establishment of standards and guidelines for comprehensive care, supported by an interdisciplinary team.

In view of the above mentioned, the Nutrition Department of the Ministry of Health is implementing an interdisciplinary group approach strategy, where users are physically active three times a week for one hour in the gymnasium of the Provincial Centre for Older Adults. The monitoring of psychology, nutrition and health education are scheduled every 15 days with the development of group meetings and workshops to address different topics.

The strategy's main purpose is to improve the quality of life, it seeks to promote healthy eating, contemplating all the dimensions of people, promoting physical health but also mental and social health, focusing on the real weight and achievable goals according to the situation of each participant, and contemplating the possible resources of people, their context, and the characteristics that condition the way they relate to food.