(P24-101-23) Evaluating the Impact of Overweight and Obesity Prevention Strategies on Nutrition Related Outcomes in Colombia

Objectives: To conduct a scoping review on the evaluation and impact of the different overweight and obesity prevention strategies implemented in Colombia, nationally, regionally, and locally.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted between October to November 2022 using PubMed and SciELO and hand searches in local databases from nutrition and public health programs in Colombia for relevant theses, dissertations, and governmental reports. The inclusion criteria were to provide data on implementation, evaluation, and/or impact assessment of prevention strategies in Colombia, quantitative and qualitative studies, publication years 2012-2022, and with target populations across the lifespan (children to adults). Data were double screened, and duplicates were removed before extraction.

Results: The electronic search and hand search identified 132 relevant reports and 17 met the inclusion criteria. From the 17 included reports, six were theses and 11 were peer-reviewed articles. Seven of the reports (41%) were on the evaluation and impact on changes in knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes related to diet or physical activity, changes in nutritional intake, physical activity, anthropometrics and biochemical markers. Of these, one report found that a multi-component community-based intervention for adults led to improvements in nutritional intake, body composition, muscular strength, cardiovascular risk, and blood pressure. One article reported that a multi-component pre-school based health promotion intervention improved knowledge, attitudes, and habits scores, two articles reported that a community-based physical activity intervention “recreovias” led to improvements in body mass index and physical activity levels, and one article reported that a school-based health promotion program led to improvements in knowledge, attitudes and habits score.

Conclusions: The available research provides insight on which current interventions have had a positive impact on outcomes that could help reduce or prevent obesity in the Colombian population. Quantitative and qualitative data should continue to be collected and disseminated regarding the efficacy of national, regional and local programs.

Funding Sources: Florida International University’s Global Health Consortium