Primary prevention interventions for adults at-risk of obesity: An international scoping review

The number of adults experiencing obesity continues to rise. A significant amount of research has addressed primary prevention interventions within pediatric populations to minimize the onset of obesity. However, research efforts within adult populations have commonly emphasized secondary and tertiary prevention for obesity. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to characterize and identify gaps in primary prevention interventions targeting adult populations at risk for obesity. A scoping review was conducted via PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, and PscyINFO. A total of 7216 papers were retrieved. Sixteen articles were included in the review. Seven of the studies included only females in the interventions. Only two studies occurred within the United States. Three studies included multi-modal interventions. Interventions were delivered by dieticians in four studies and nurses in three studies. Fifteen of the studies proved to be effective overall for improving weight-related outcomes. The following themes were revealed through this review: (1) participants were usually female and homogenous; (2) studies frequently occurred outside of the United States; (3) studies most often explored unimodal interventions; (4) dieticians and nurses were the most common intervention providers; and (5) favorable outcomes for reducing weight were demonstrated across studies. This scoping review reveals that primary prevention interventions have the potential to minimize obesity onset in at-risk adult populations. However, evaluation of current interventions shows multiple gaps in population target, intervention origin, intervention type, and provider type.