| Popis: |
Introduction: Childhood and adolescent obesity is serious and challenging public health concern. School doctors regularly assess body weight and track BMI percentiles during well visits at the School Health Centres. They are encouraged to refer children and their parents for further evaluation and management, but obesity treatment programs are not available in many areas. Zagreb City Oãce for Health has recognized this issue and has funded Youth Health Centre in Zagreb which oØers free counselling and treatment for obesity and eating disorders outside of the primary care setting. It is a multidisciplinary team run by two school doctors with psychotherapy background, and dietitians, kinesiology teacher, psychologist and psychiatrist available for consultation. aim: To review the outcomes of obesity counselling within community youth health centre. methods: we evaluated obesity interventions at Youth Health Centre, carried out once a week, during two school years. results: 43 children (Mean age = 16.3 ; 34 girls) participated in obesity individual or family counselling during 119 counselling sessions: 10 children from elementary school, 17 from high school, and 16 university students. Mean BMI for 14 older children were 31.99 (24.44 – 41.1). Among 29 younger children, 25 were children with a BMI above the 97th percentile. The intensity and frequency of the visits varied greatly from 1 to 17 visits. Aàer two visits (N = 25) 20 children lost their weight (mean = -1.7 kg), and aàer 3 visits (N = 17) 10 children lost weight (mean = -4.2 kg). conclusion: It is imperative for primary care providers to screen for obesity and disordered eating symptoms and for local community to provide aØordable, acceptable and appropriate eØective treatments. keywords: Obesity, local community Youth Health Centre, Obesity treatment, children and adolescents |
