Therapeutic strategies for pediatric obesity and their effect in cardiovascular disease risk markers

• Autor(a) principal: Nascimento, H.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Quintanilha, A., Santos-Silva, A., Belo, L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://actafarmaceuticaportuguesa.com/index.php/afp/article/view/43
• topic: Pediatric obesity; intervention; cardiovascular disease; Obesidade pediátrica; intervenção; doença cardiovascular

Pediatric obesity is an important public health problem nowadays. Portugal is no exception, being one third of children and adolescent either overweight or obese. The behavioral approach is the basilar stone of obese treatment nowadays. It focuses in change lifestyle, substituting unhealthy habits by new, healthier, ones.A great number of strategies have been studied to try to respond to this growing problem, with varying results. The heterogeneity present in the scientific literature is likely to be explained by different study designs and targeted populations. Nevertheless, the results, in general, support that improvements in diet and increase in physical exercise pattern are associated with improvements in risk factors for cardiovascular disease, namely an atherogenic lipid profile, insulin resistance and inflammation, besides the reduction in adiposity itself.The combination of diet and exercise in the same intervention appear to be beneficial and complementary. However, different types of diet and exercise might lead to different results.The use of pharmacological adjuvants in pediatric obesity treatment is very limited in clinical practice due, mainly, to the lack of adequate studies; however some options have demonstrated to contribute to a small, but consistent, improvement in adiposity. Surgery, on the other hand, is the last therapeutic option and should be considered only in the more severe cases.Pediatric obesity tends to track until adulthood, and is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the future. Acting as early as possible in an individual life, when health habits are easier to acquire, and likelier to be kept, is crucial.Governments, including the Portuguese, have been paying more attention to this issue in the last years. However, much more can be made in general policies to create a less obesogenic environment and make the healthy choices the easier ones.