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.