Hospital Intervention to Reduce Overweight with Educational Reinforcement after Discharge: A Multicenter Randomized Clinical Trial.

INTRODUCTION: Obesity and overweight affect more than one-third of the world's population and pose a major public health problem. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on dietary habits and physical exercise in patients with overweight admitted to departments of internal medicine, comprising a pre-discharge educational session with follow-up and reinforcement by telephone at 3, 6, and, 12 months post-discharge. Outcome variables were weight, systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), hospital readmissions, emergency department visits, and death. METHOD: A randomized experimental study with a control group was performed in hospitalized non-diabetic adults aged ≥18 years with body mass index (BMI) ≥25 Kg/m2. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The final sample included 273 patients. At three months post-discharge, the intervention group had lower SBP and DPB and improved dietary habits (assessed using the Pardo Questionnaire) and VAS-assessed HRQOL in comparison to the control group but a worse EQ-5Q-5L-assessed HRQOL. There were no between-group differences in hospital readmissions, emergency department visits, or mortality at any time point. Both groups evidenced a progressive improvement over the three follow-up periods in weight, SBP, and dietary habits but a worsening of EQ-5D-5L-value-assessed HRQOL. DISCUSSION: The intervention group showed greater improvements over the short term, but between-group differences disappeared at 6 and 12 months. Weight loss and improvements in key outcomes were observed in both groups over the follow-up period. Further research is warranted to determine whether a minimum intervention with an educational leaflet, follow-up phone calls, and questionnaires on overweight-related healthy habits, as in the present control group, may be an equally effective strategy without specific individual educational input.

Differences in Dietary Habits, Physical Exercise, and Quality of Life between Male and Female Patients with Overweight.

Overweight can be an additional problem in patients admitted to hospital. OBJECTIVE: To analyze gender differences in pre-admission dietary habits and physical exercise and in HRQoL at hospital discharge among hospitalized adults with overweight. METHODS: Cross-sectional study in non-diabetic patients enrolled in a clinical trial with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 Kg/m2 at admission. Bivariate analyses used Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test for qualitative variables and the Mann-Whitney test for numerical variables. RESULTS: The study included 148 males and 127 females. At admission, women had higher BMI (p = 0.016) than men and a larger percentage consumed drugs for depression (p = 0.030) and anxiety (p = 0.049), and followed a religion-based diet (p = 0.022). Pre-admission, women had healthier habits related to dietary caloric intake (p = 0.009) and greater adherence to recommendations for a healthy diet (p = 0.001). At discharge, women described worse self-perceived health (p = 0.044) and greater pain/discomfort (p = 0.004) in comparison to men. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-admission, women had better habits related to a healthy diet and did not differ from men in habits related to physical exercise but had a higher BMI. At discharge, women reported worse self-perceived health and greater pain/discomfort. These differences should be considered for the adequate clinical management of patients with overweight.