Introduction:

anxiety and depression disorders represent important pathological mental health conditions with an increasing prevalence worldwide. As well as obesity, which has an estimated prevalence of 18.9% in the Brazilian population. Such pathological situations are quite harmful to health, and may or may not be associated with each other. However, the identification of the occurrence of both disorders in obese people is negatively affected due to the need for more expanded diagnostic studies. Given this pathological potential to derogate health, the coexistence between the aforementioned disorders in obese people deserves an in-depth look by health professionals, especially those involved in primary care.

Objective:

was to analyze the evidence on the prevalence of anxiety and depression disorders in obese patients.

Methods:

scope review, registered in PROSPERO and prepared according to PRISMA-ScR, based on the research question structured in the acronym PVO, from which the descriptors used in the Boolean search for scientific articles were extracted, which were evaluated and selected blindly among the evaluators, based on in the eligibility criteria. The databases consulted in January 2023 were Pubmed (Medline), Web of Science and Scopus. The assessment of the methodological quality or risk of bias of the articles was carried out using the Critical Assessment of Studies with Prevalence Data (CASPD-JBI) tool.

Results:

nine articles were included, bringing together female participants (64%) and men (36%) with different classes of obesity, aged between 20 and 40 years. The simultaneous coexistence of anxiety and depression in obese people has been identified. Among the studies included, 56% were evaluated with high methodological quality and 44% were with moderate quality.

Conclusion:

although more studies with greater methodological rigor are still needed, we consider that the concomitant prevalence of anxiety and depression disorders is high in patients with different levels of obesity, especially in those with severe obesity. This suggests the inclusion of the evaluation of these psychological disorders in the evaluation portfolio of obese people, for a better therapeutic approach.

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