There are 1.3 billion people worldwide with various types of disabilities. This corresponds to around 15 percent of the entire world population. Despite this high number, however, studies on the needs and challenges of people with disabilities have rarely been carried out. Compared to the general population, people with disabilities face health inequalities, among other things. For example, they are less physically active and more prone to obesity and cardiovascular disease. This is due to the fact that they have difficulty leading a healthy lifestyle and, in particular, maintaining a healthy weight. Due to the growing problem of overweight and obesity, it is important to identify effective weight reduction measures for this target group in particular.
For this reason, the Chair of Epidemiology headed by Prof. Dr. Stefanie Klug conducted a systematic literature review based on three electronic databases to identify randomized controlled trials on behavioral interventions and weight-related outcomes in people with physical disabilities. The interventions of the studies, which were conducted until May 2022, were categorized as nutrition, physical activity, education/coaching or multi-component interventions. The results of the study have now been published under the title "Behavioral weight loss interventions for people with physical disabilities: A systematic review" in the journal "Obesity Reviews". The journal has an impact factor of 10.867.
"In terms of content, we aimed to evaluate the effect of behavioral weight loss interventions for people with physical disabilities," explains Jihad Hossaini, first author of the review and now a Research Associate at the Chair of Social Determinants of Health. "An additional, more latent goal was to summarize the different interventions and types of interventions for this target group. In principle, we aimed to provide a comprehensive description and evaluation of all current weight loss interventions for people with physical disabilities and obesity."
Vanesa Osmani, co-author of the publication and Research Associate at the Chair of Epidemiology, adds: "We found that obesity rates are increasing among people with disabilities. We therefore wanted to find out which measures contribute to weight loss in this target group. We focused explicitly on this group because not so much research has been carried out in this area."
A total of 60 studies with 6,511 participants were included in the qualitative synthesis. 32 of the studies included multiple treatments, such as diet and physical activity. 14 studies focused only on diet, nine studies mainly used physical activity interventions and five studies mainly used educational or counseling interventions. It was shown that comprehensive nutritional interventions or long-term multi-component interventions could lead to a clinically relevant weight reduction of at least five percent in people over 50 years of age with mild to moderate mobility impairments. However, generally, the evidence remains limited beyond the included participants, such as people with mild to moderate mobility impairments and obesity. Due to the high heterogeneity of the studies and the low study quality in some cases, the results should be handled with care.
"We collected all available evidence on this topic in this systematic literature review," concludes Prof. Klug. "However, high quality studies with robust sample size are needed to further investigate this important field of research. With the foundation now established with this review, future studies can also apply the current interventions to other hard-to-reach target groups."
To the homepage of the Chair of Epidemiology
To the publication „Behavioral weight loss interventions for people with physical disabilities: A systematic review” in the journal “Obesity Reviews”
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Klug, MPH
Chair of Epidemiology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 56
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24950
e-mail: sekretariat.klug.epidemiologie(at)mh.tum.de
Jihad Hossaini
Chair of Social Determinants of Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
e-mail: jihad.hossaini(at)tum.de
Vanesa Osmani
Chair of Epidemiology
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 56
80992 München
e-eail: vanesa.osmani(at)mh.tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photos: „Obesity Reviews”/Astrid Eckert/TUM/private