Interdisciplinary policlinical treatment for patients with morbid obesity

At Clinical Service at St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim, Norway, we have developed a multi-disciplinary outpatient intervention to treat obese patients. The aims of this article are to describe the underlying theoretical assumptions, the intervention and the outcome measures used to evaluate our multi-disciplinary, outpatient clinic treatment protocol. According to recommendations, this intervention addressed both physical and psychological aspects of weight reduction. The multi-disciplinary team consisted of physiotherapist, occupational therapist, clinical dietician and social worker. Our goal was to help the participants to establish new habits and to hold on to their new lifestyle (diet and nutrition, physical activity, daily life routines). This to achieve the purpose of long-term weight-reduction increased coping and improved quality of life. Recommendations from The Norwegian Directorate of Health were used as guidelines regarding the parts of the intervention that included nutritional and physical activity advices. The theoretical framework was based on social cognitive theory, theories on behavioural changes and group dynamics. The participants defined and described their own goals at the baseline registration. The multi-disciplinary group intervention included dietary advice, cooking, physical activity, exercise physiology and behavioural modifications including coping strategies. We assisted the participants in finding activities that encouraged adherence to the treatment protocol and could be implemented in their daily life. During a six months period the participants followed an exercise program led by physiotherapists two to three times per week, and participated in weekly group meetings led by occupational therapist, clinical dietician and social worker. We included validated outcome measures to make it possible to evaluate the effects of our intervention. Results from the project will be published when the project period has ended