[Nutritional and metabolic pattern]

Being overweight or obese are more frequent conditions in highly developed countries. Moreover, according to WHO, those people who suffer from a mental health-related pathology have a higher risk to suffer cardiovascular complications than the rest of the general population. The main objective of this observational descriptive study is to evaluate whether or not the percentage of patients who are either overweight or obese interned in an acute psychiatric ward is equal to or greater than the percentage in the general population. The sample is comprised by 180 patients, 86 men and 94 women, less than 18 years old who have an average age of 44 years and who have been interned during a year from June 2007 to June 2008. The investigators analyzed the patients' BMI values when they registered, evaluating their distribution in terms of sex, age and clinical diagnosis, obtaining a BMI average of 27, overweight, with 25% having a BMI >30, obesity Investigators classified six diagnostic groups; those patients diagnosed as schizophrenic and having psychotic disorders comprised the largest group at 40%, and also was the group which had the highest incidence of being overweight or obese. Among the Galician general population, 38.6% are overweight while 17% are obese; in the sample study group, 42% register as overweight and 23.3% obese. The 18 to 24-year-old group registered a 28.6% rate of obesity superior to the 7% registered as overweight. The other two groups classified in this study registered an obesity percentage less than that for being overweight. The researchers conclude that among patients who suffer from mental health pathology the perception of an increase in weight produced by medication is frequent. Nurses have a fundamental role helping to identify how the principal causes of being overweight, sedentary habits and a lack of a balanced diet, and to facilitate strategies to patients, without opting for abandoning their medication. As health professionals in general, we should push for a systematic detection of obesity or being overweight among patients interned in hospitals, especially due to the inherent risks patients who have psychiatric pathologies run; these risks include sedentary habits, medication, difficulty to care for themselves, etc.