A "practical guide" to help health care providers manage the treatment of their overweight and obese patients, an online interactive menu planner, and consumer tips on behavior change for weight management are some of the new tools being unveiled by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) this month to help tackle Americas battle of the bulge.
The need for these tools couldnt be more pressing. Recent statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) show that between 1994 and 1999 the U.S. experienced a 5 percent increase in the number of adults who are overweight or obese.
"This is 61 percent of the U.S. adult population almost 108 million people who because of their weight are at greater risk for several major diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer," said NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant.
To help these people and their health care team, NHLBIs Obesity Education Initiative in cooperation with the North American Association for the Study of Obesity convened a working group to prepare The Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Based on the clinical guidelines released by NHLBI in 1998, the practical guide is just that a practical manual with tools and tips for weight loss.
"This guide gives health care providers the fundamentals needed to evaluate and treat this important health problem and contains information which has not been provided elsewhere in their training," said Dr. Louis J. Aronne, chair of the committee that developed the guide and clinical associate professor of medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City.
The guides new features, which were not in the original obesity guidelines, include a 10-step plan and a quick reference tool to help physicians assess, classify, and treat overweight and obesity. The guide also includes detailed sections on dietary therapy,
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Contact: NHLBI Communications Office
301-496-4236
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
14-Mar-2001