NURSING PRACTICE IN FAMILY MEDICINE AS A FACTOR IN OBESITY PREVENTION AND HEALTH PROMOTION AMONG POPULATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11603/2411-1597.2026.1.16285Keywords:
obesity, primary healthcare, nursing interventions, prevention, motivational interviewing, healthy lifestyleAbstract
Introduction. Overweight and obesity are among the leading challenges for modern medicine and public health systems. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022 the number of people living with obesity worldwide exceeded 1 billion, more than 159 million of whom were children. The prevalence of obesity in Ukraine corresponds to global trends: according to the results of the 2019 STEPS survey, overweight was identified in 59 % of the adult population, while obesity accounted for 24.8 %. Childhood overweight poses a significant risk for the future development of chronic non-communicable diseases and leads to substantial medical, social, and economic consequences.
The aim of the study – to substantiate the role of family medicine nurses in the prevention and management of obesity, to assess their level of awareness of modern approaches to obesity prevention, and to identify practical recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of nursing activities at the primary health care level.
The main part. The study was conducted in 2024–2025 at four primary healthcare facilities in Zhytomyr region. A total of 200 practicing nurses participated in the study. Bibliographic, medical-sociological, and statistical-analytical methods were applied using descriptive statistics. It was found that most respondents regularly perform basic preventive interventions, including anthropometric measurements and blood pressure monitoring. At the same time, risk assessment tools, behavioral techniques, motivational interviewing, and screening of psycho-emotional status are used much less frequently. Fewer than one third of respondents are familiar with clinical guidelines, and only about 10% report regular professional development. Interdisciplinary collaboration with dietitians and psychologists remains insufficiently developed. The main barriers include low patient motivation, stigmatization, limited consultation time, and a lack of educational materials.
Conclusions. Nurses have significant potential in obesity prevention; however, its implementation requires the introduction of clinical guidelines, the development of behavioral competencies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the use of digital educational tools.
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Copyright (c) 2026 С. В. Гордійчук, В. Й. Шатило, О. М. Серебряков, А. А. Можарівська
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2026-04-28
Published 2026-05-04
