Effects of a new interdisciplinary intervention based on the "Health at Every Size®" approach on lipid profile in obese women

Introduction: Obesity is a public health problem, with multifactorial etiology, related to the incidence of comorbidities, such as cardiovascular diseases - the number-one cause of death globally. However, treatments to reverse this condition have no long-term effect, and new interventions to treat obesity are formulated, such as the Health at Every Size® (HAES®) approach, which still shows inconclusive results regarding the improvement in metabolic profile related to cardiovascular diseases. Objective: To analyze the effects of a new interdisciplinary intervention based on the HAES® approach on biochemical markers related to cardiovascular diseases in obese women. Methods: Prospective, quantitative study based on a randomized controlled clinical trial lasting seven months. Ninety-seven participants were recruited, after approval in the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the sample, and were randomly assembled into the "Intervention" or "Control" groups, whose activities had the principles of the HAES® approach as guides. Participants in the Intervention group held five philosophical workshops, nutritional counseling every two weeks and physical activity three times a week. The participants of the "Control" group participated bimonthly in lectures related to philosophy, nutrition and physical activity. Data collection and analysis were performed before and after the intervention for the following parameters: triglycerides, total cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. Variables were compared before and after the intervention using Student's t-test. Results: Reductions were observed for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and NHDL-cholesterol in both groups. On the other hand, for VLDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, there was an increase in the levels observed. As for HDL-cholesterol, the "Intervention" group had a decrease after the study, whereas the "Control" group had an increase in the same. However, for all observed variables, there were no statistically significant differences. Conclusion: The intervention itself was not effective enough to cause changes in the lipid profile