The modern methods for the rehabilitation of adolescents suffering obesity

Abstract

To-day, obesity spreads dramatically fast all over the world not only among the adults but also among the children. According to the data available from the scientific literature, the number of adolescents suffering from obesity in Russia increased more than 1.5 times during the period from 2006 till 2015. The combination of non-drug therapeutic measures (including diet therapy, therapeutic physical exercises, and psychophysiological technologies) constitutes the basis for the treatment of obesity. Russia has gained a vast experience with the management of this condition with the use of natural and preformed therapeutic agents. The main objective of the present study was the comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the rehabilitation programs for the obese subjects with based on the application of alternative and complementary therapeutic modalities for the treatment of the adolescent girls with obesity. The study included 86 girls with obesity at the age of 13-17 years who were randomly divided into 3 groups matched for the age and anthropometric characteristics. All the patients were prescribed a treatment course, including motivational training and aerobic exercise, in addition to the routine recommendations for the short-term modification of eating habits. The vacuum therapy was additionally included in the combined treatment protocol for the patients of the first group (n=28) while the patients of the second group (n=29) received the treatment in the spa capsule (SC) and the girls of the third group (n=29) underwent transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy. The analysis of the results obtained in this study has demonstrated a significant reduction of the body weight, waist and hip circumferences in the patients of all study groups (p<0.05). The comparison of these results with the baseline characteristics showed that the use of combined physiotherapy including the treatment in the spa capsule had significant advantages over local vacuum therapy in terms of weight dynamics (p=0.009), body mass index (p=0.009), hip circumference (p=0.019) and the chest skinfold thickness (p=0.02). The use of alternative and complementary therapeutic modalities in the combination with motivational training and aerobic exercises effectively contributes to the weight loss in the obese adolescent girls, with the combined pysiotherapeutic treatment having advantages over local therapy methods.