Current Recommendations for Nutritional Management of Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents: A Structured Framework

Abstract

Nutritional management is an important component of the treatment of pediatric overweight and obesity, but clinicians struggle to keep abreast with the abundant literature. Therefore, our aim is to provide a tool that integrates the current recommendations and clinical expertise to assist dietitians and other practitioners in their decision making about the nutritional management of pediatric overweight and obesity. To construct this practice-based evidence-informed framework, we conducted a systematic review of the guidelines on nutritional management of pediatric overweight or obesity in 2 databases and in the grey literature. We analyzed and synthesized recommendations of 17 guidelines. We selected the recommendations that were common to at least 30% of the guidelines and added by consensus the recommendations relevant to clinical expertise. Finally, we structured the framework according to the Nutritional Care Process in collaboration with a specialized team of dietitians who assessed its validity in clinical practice. The framework contributes to facilitate the integration of evidence-based practice for dietitians by synthesizing the current evidence, supporting clinical expertise, and promoting structured care following Nutrition Care Process model for children and adolescents with obesity.