Short-term changes of cardiovascular risk factors after a non-pharmacological body weight reduction program

Objective: To test the short-term effectiveness of a 3 week hospital-based body weight reduction (BWR) program on selected coronary heart disease (CHD ) risk factors in obese subjects. Design: Intervention study to assess the modifications in CHD risk factor s cores estimated according to Framingham risk factor categories (age, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, di abetes and smoking). Setting: 3rd Division of Metabolic Diseases, Italian Institute for Auxology , Piancavallo (VB), Italy. Subjects: Two-hundred and sixty-eight obese patients (43 men, 225 women, ag e range 19 - 81 y, body mass index (BMI) range 30-67). Intervention: The BWR program consisted of a 3 week integrated energy-restr icted diet (1200 - 1800 kcal/day), associated with moderate aerobic exercis e, psychological counselling and educational lectures. Results: Substantial reductions of total cholesterol (16.7%), HDL cholester ol (14.8%), systolic (11.2%) and diastolic blood pressure (8.7%) were obser ved at the end of the intervention, even with relatively moderate decrease in weight (4.1%) and in persistence of elevated BMI (over 40 kg/m(2)). The mean CHD Framingham score decreased by 16.1%, from 7.8 to 6.2. The BWR-indu ced changes were similar in both sexes, and across strata of age and BMI. Conclusions: The full-time participation of the patients in the hospital-ba sed, integrated BWR program may explain the positive clinical outcome in al l the subgroups considered, although the long-term results need to be quant ified.