Strategies to Manage Obesity in Older Adults

Dear Colleagues,

Given the unprecedented trend in population ageing, there is an increased need to promote healthy ageing. However, a number of physiological changes are associated with age, including reductions in lean body mass and a concurrent accumulation of fat mass. As such, secular trends in obesity amongst the older adult population have steadily increased over recent decades, making this an important public health priority. Obesity in older adults is associated with illness and comorbid disease, mobility disability, falls and fractures, poor quality of life and premature mortality. These adverse health outcomes affect not only the lives of individuals but also overall healthcare expenditure. Conventional therapy for the management of obesity is to adopt a calorie-restricted diet in order to facilitate loss of fat mass and improve cardiometabolic health. However, appropriate management of obesity in older adults remains controversial given the potential threat associated with intentional calorie-induced weight loss on losses in lean body mass and bone, which may exacerbate functional decline in older adults. In this Special Issue of Healthcare, we aim to provide our readers, including clinicians, allied health professionals, researchers and older adults themselves, with the latest evidence on therapeutic treatment strategies (lifestyle, behavioural and pharmacological) for the management of obesity in ageing. We therefore invite manuscripts describing epidemiological, interventional and implementation studies which explore potential strategies to combat obesity in older adults.

Dr. Anthony Villani
Guest Editor

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