Summary
Background
The rise of childhood obesity in Latin America calls for research capacity to understand, monitor and implement strategies, policies and programmes to address it.
Objective
The objective of the study was to assess current research capacity in Latin America related to childhood obesity, nutrition and physical activity.
Methods
We conducted a search of peer‐reviewed articles on childhood obesity in Latin America with at least one Latin American author from 2010 to May 2015. We coded 484 published articles for author affiliation, study subjects' nationality, research topic and study design and extracted a series of networks per research topic, study design and collaborating country for each of the countries.
Results
Obesity is the most frequently explored topic. Nutrition and obesity are somewhat better developed compared with physical activity and sedentary behaviour. There are numerous observational and cross‐sectional studies, indicating either a lack of capacity required for more complex research or the extent of the problem and associated factors is still unknown. The low number of intervention studies and the near absence of policy articles suggest a void in research capacity.
Conclusion
For childhood obesity, there is a clear need to build research capacity that documents the current state of the problem and design evidence‐based prevention and intervention efforts.
Although the health benefits of physical activity are well established, the prevalence of midlife women accumulating sufficient physical activity to meet current physical activity guidelines is strikingly low, as shown in United States (U.S.) based surveillance systems that utilize either (or both) participant-reported and device-based (i.e., accelerometers) measures of activity. For midlife women, these low prevalence estimates may be due, in part, to a general lack of time given more pressing work commitments and family obligations. Further, the benefits or "reward" of allocating limited time to physical activity may be perceived, by some, as too distant for immediate action or attention. However, shifting the health promotion message from the long term benefits of physical activity to the more short-term, acute benefits may encourage midlife women to engage in more regular physical activity. In this article, we review the latest evidence (i.e., past 5 years) regarding the impact of physical activity on menopausal symptoms. Recent studies provide strong support for the absence of an effect of physical activity on vasomotor symptoms; evidence is still inconclusive regarding the role of physical activity on urogenital symptoms (vaginal dryness, urinary incontinence) and sleep, but consistently suggestive of a positive impact on mood and weight control. To further advance this field, we also propose additional considerations and future research directions.
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