Effects of an Interdisciplinary Intervention Program on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children With Overweight and Obesity

The intervention program was composed of physical activities, nutritional and psychological monitoring. The same lasted 10 weeks, where the meetings took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the children, in which they participated in 50 minutes of physical activity. On Saturdays, children were exposed to physical activity, guidance on healthy eating, and behavior change. On that day, mothers also participated in gym classes (duration of 50 minutes) and nutritional guidelines (duration of 50 minutes) and behavior change (duration of 120 minutes). It is noteworthy that the team was composed of ten psychology students and one teacher from the same area, three nutritionists, two teachers and five physical education students and four physicians.

Physical activities consisted of games and popular games lasting 50-60 minutes. Thus, in order to keep the children physically active as long as possible, timing was 2 minutes interval for water between each activity, resulting in a total time of 6 minutes rest throughout the class. Thus, there were 30 physical activity sessions with the children.

On Saturdays, mothers also participated in physical activities. Aerobic gymnastics and functional training were developed, lasting 50 minutes. During the classes, mothers were instructed to stay physically active during the week, performing, if possible, some physical activity at least five days a week.

On Saturdays, children were also submitted to guidelines on healthy eating, where they were encouraged to eat the right way, also learned about the importance of food, the group to which each food is a part, especially the foods they make Part of the context of the child, learned a variety of fruits and vegetables, learned how to prepare their own healthy snack and were motivated to take the acquired knowledge home, stimulating the whole family to adhere to healthier eating habits.

Nutrition counseling was also carried out with the mothers. At the meetings the nutritional needs for the age group of their children were exposed, the ideal foods to be consumed at each moment of the day, knowledge about the group to which each food belongs, adequate food According to the financial conditions, and a little book of recipes was created, where the food, fruits and typical dishes of the local region were emphasized, but in a healthier way.