Effects of association of physical education and multidisciplinary intervention program on cardiovascular risk factors in obese elderly women

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a multidisciplinary intervention program on cardiovascular risk factors in obese women. Participated 33 obese women, classified by the body mass index - BMI ≥ 30kg/m². Material: The intervention program had a duration of the 12 weeks, and consisted of nutritional and psychological support, as well as physical exercise orientation, with a supervision single weekly session for 60 min, being the participants stimulated to do physical exercise in the other days of the week. Pre- and post- intervention were measured the anthropometrics, as body weight, stature, lean body mass, fat mass, BMI; metabolic, as total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose; hemodynamic parameters, as blood pressure and heart rate; and autonomic cardiac from the heart rate variability, with analyses in the frequency-domain, through the relative power of the low-frequency band (0.04-0.15 Hz) in normal units (LFnu) and relative power of the highfrequency band (0.15-0.4 Hz) in normal units (HFnu). Results: The intervention program promoted significant decrease in the body weight (-2%), BMI (-1.9%), fat mass (-2.1%), triglycerides (-2%), diastolic blood pressure (-10.6%), LFnu (-22.1%) and increase of the HFnu (+53.1%), resulting in a reduction of the LF:HF ratio, reducing the cardiac sympathetic modulation and increasing the parasympathetic modulation. Conclusions: These results suggest that a multidisciplinary intervention program is effective in the beginning of the treatment of obesity and to the reduction of risk factors for cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases.