Effects of 12 weeks of interdisciplinary interventions on behavioral and eating parameters of adolescents with overweight or obesity

Abstract

Objetctive: To analyze the 12 weeks' effects of interdisciplinary interventions on behavioral and eating parameters of overweight or obese adolescents. Methods: This study presents a longitudinal and quasiexperimental design. 40 adolescents aged 16 ± 1 years were selected to participate on the study. Therefore, only 17 completed the 12 weeks of interdisciplinary interventions. The interventions were realized by physical education professionals (physical exercises three times a week), physiotherapists (exercises to strengthen the core and postural exercises three times a week), nutrition (feeding re-education twice a week) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (focus on behavior change and adoption of an active lifestyle once a week). In order to quantify the adolescents' behavioral parameters, the questionnaires were: Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ), Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RAS) and Hamilton anxiety scale (HAS). Results: For BSQ's answer 9: "are you with thin people of the same sex as you, make you feel worried about your physique? "A significant reduction in the responses attributed by the adolescents at the post-intervention (p<0.05) level was identified, as well as for the HAS, in question 3: fear-of the dark, of unknown, of the crowd, of being abandoned, large animals, transit", with lower values (p<0.05) after interdisciplinary interventions. Conclusion: Interdisciplinary interventions resulted in improvements in body image in relation to the perception of physical state, as well as in a decrease in fear presented by adolescents. The 12 weeks of interventions presented slight changes in the adolescents' behavior analyzed in the study. © The authors (2019)..