MEDIUM REACH THEORY FOR NURSING CARE TO ADOLESCENTS WITH OBESITY
Adolescents; Nursing; Obesity; Health promotion; Primary health care.
Introduction: Nursing care for adolescents with obesity occurs in the school context or in Primary Care services, through multiprofessional interventions, with a view to promoting healthy habits. The lack of a specific theoretical framework for nursing care, based on the values, principles, and concepts of the discipline, and focused on the needs of adolescents, indicates the need for a medium-range theory in this area. The construction of these theoretical bases becomes important when considering the increasing rates of this disease among adolescents. Objective: To develop a medium-range theory of nursing care for adolescents with obesity, in the context of Primary Health Care. Method: Methodological study, developed in three stages and based on the Walker and Avant Theory Derivation strategy and on the Model Health Promotion Program. In the first stage, an integrative literature review was conducted to describe the actions of nursing care performed with a focus on adolescents with obesity. In the second stage, the concepts, attributes, antecedents and consequences of nursing care, were identified in the literature and the statements of relationship between the concepts were established. In the third stage, the theory itself was constructed through the derivation process, through which the elements identified in the conceptual analysis were compared analogously with the concepts and statements contained in the Pender Health Promotion Model and redefined for the context of Primary Health Care. Results: A final sample of 58 studies served as a basis to identify care actions for adolescents with obesity. Eight essential attributes of the phenomenon were identified, 12 antecedents and 10 consequent. The theory of nursing care for adolescents with obesity, built in the third stage, integrates the principles of the Pender model, as well as the specific concepts of individual characteristics and experiences, cognitions and behavioral affects, and other factors that lead to the result of promoting Cheers. The statements derived from this process structure the descriptive and explanatory theoretical model of care for this population in the context of Primary Care. Conclusion: It is concluded that the medium-range theory developed in this study allows nurses to understand their role in the multidisciplinary team in caring for the population of adolescents with obesity; it allows to minimize the gap between theory and nursing practice in adolescent health care; and contributes to the advancement of nursing theoretical knowledge and the implementation of evidence-based practice.