In 1998, using the non-adjusted BMI guidelines for Asians, the WHO Global Database on BMI reports overweight and obesity in the Philippines at 23.5%, with the female adults having higher obesity prevalence rates than male adults. In 2003, the Philippine National Nutritional Health Evaluation and Survey showed that there are 19.6% overweight and 4.9% obese Filipinos.

Being one of the pioneering organizations in the prevention and control of obesity, Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO) has started its advocacy towards educating the lay regarding this chronic lifestyle disease.

Last August 29, 2007, the First Wellness Summit entitled “Bawas Timbang, Dagdag Buhay” (Lose Weight, Gain Life) was held at the SM Megatrade Hall. The activity was conceptualized to be the organization’s first step towards educating the lay regarding weight problems and its health hazards.

The Wellness Summit was opened by the Department of Social Wellfare and Development Secretary, Dr. Esperanza Cabral, who was one of the guests of honor for the activity. Dr. Soe Nyut-u, the World Health Organization’s representative and a citizen of the Golden Land of Myanmar, Burma, was also there for the opening and also congratulated the PASOO for planning the activity.

Booths were then opened, ready for the guests to interact with the doctors and specialists talking about overweight and obesity and its hazards. Audio-visual presentations were shown containing information on the definition of obesity, its natural history, cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular hazards related to overweight and obesity, and the different ways to treat this problem through physical activity and proper diet. Fad diets were also defined. Each booth was filled up with guests eagerly listening to the presentations and asking the doctors for further information as to how they could approach their own weight problems. A booth filled up with exercising machines was well-visited by the lay and the PASOO board themselves!

Free glucose and cholesterol screening, with blood pressure measurement were also undertaken. These booths were filled up with so many guests that getting a blood pressure of 160/100 and glucose at 300+ mg/dL in some of the asymptomatic individuals made us think of bringing insulin, intravenous fluids and some emergency drugs next time around.... It was a good thing that simple hydration and rest made these values go down. The diabetic and hypertensive guests even continued visiting the different booths.

There were lectures regarding the proper exercise. An open forum, with the audience asking the experts regarding diabetes, weight loss and hypertension was held. Ms. Plinky Recto herself demonstrated what Pilates was all about. Soon after, an aerobics instructor demonstrated a good cardiovascular work out and had good audience participation. In fact, even the PASOO Board members joined in!

Finally, a live cooking demonstration sponsored by Nestle gave everyone ideas regarding healthy menus. It was just too bad that not everyone was able to eat the food they freshly cooked. Those who tasted the meal seemed very satisfied.

A Research Output

Part of the Wellness Summit was to have a research output that would help doctors in further managing patients with weight issues. Hence, survey was done among its attendees to determine whether the PASOO Wellness summit would be an effective way of educating the lay regarding overweight and obesity, as well as be a ground for physicians to collect data regarding some research questions.

The objectives were: to determine the number of guests interested in knowing about obesity, and to determine whether the attendees have other risk factors related to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease other than obesity.

Questionnaires were given to randomly selected attendees of the Wellness Summit. They were then asked to pass by each of the 10 booths to fill up the data in the questionnaire.

After the 10th booth, data collection forms were collected.

Out of the 839 lay attendees, 326 (39% of total lay attendees) were able to answer the questionnaires. However, only 187 (57.4% of the total questionnaires) forms were filled up to have analyzable data.

Most of the participants were adults of middle age, 31% of whom were males, and 12 (6%) belonged to the pediatric age group (<18 years old). More than half were overweight based on body mass index of 24kg/m2. Among the males, only 8% were obese based on waist circumference of >90 cm, while among females, 32% had a waist circumference of >80 cm. Waist:Hip ratio was 0.9 among males, and 0.8 among females. Mean random blood glucose was above normal at 162 mg/dL, meaning most of the respondents were either insulin resistant or poorly controlled diabetics. Mean blood pressure was normal.

Attitudes towards eating and obesity were also tabulated. More than a third of the respondents admitted that they were fastfood diners and were fond of fatty food. These answers were collected after they attended booths discussing the modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for developing obesity.

More than half of the respondents learned that they were obese with cardiovascular risk factors. Only 87 (45%), however specified the specific disease, 26% of whom wrote down diabetes and hypertension.

Conclusion

Indeed the First PASOO Wellness Summit, “Bawas Timbang, Dagdag Buhay” was an effective first step in educating the lay regarding overweight and obesity. The activity was well-attended by the target population PASOO intended to connect with.

It is hoped that the next summit would be just as well-attended and would offer a good learning ground for the lay and the doctors themselves.