INTRODUCTION
Overweight and obesity are global public health problems. The World
Health Organization estimated that in 2016 39% of adults were
overweight (body mass index; BMI ≥ 25kg/m2) and 13%
were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²) worldwide [1]. Excess body weight
increases risk of a cluster of cardiometabolic disorders such as type 2
diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidemia, being associated with
increased risk of coronary artery disease, stroke and mortality
(all-cause and cardiovascular) [2,3].
Management of weight loss includes effective delivery of lifestyle
intervention (diet, physical activity and behavior modification) and
consideration of obesity pharmacotherapy, in appropriate patients. For
patients refractory to clinical treatment there are other options
including surgery and intragastric balloons (IGBs) [3-6].
IGBs are considered an effective, minimally invasive, non-surgical
option for weight loss in patients with a BMI of >25 kg/m²
who have experienced poor results with clinical treatments [5,6] and
are recommended as weight reduction adjuvant therapy before bariatric
surgery [7]. The IGB permits an early feeling of satiety, probably
as a consequence of gastric distention, and significantly decreases the
amount of food eaten, thus facilitating maintenance of a low-calorie
diet [8]. To date few studies have evaluated the influence of
overweight degree, gender and nutritional counseling on the efficacy IGB
treatment.
The aims of this study were to evaluate the tolerance, complications and
efficacy of a 6 month non-adjustable IGB treatment in individuals with
different degrees of overweight. Additional aims were to evaluate the
efficacy of IGB according to pretreatment BMI, gender and nutritional
counseling.