Outpatient management of obesity: a primary care perspective.
An estimated 64% of the adult population in the United States is either overweight or obese. Because obesity affects such a large percentage of the population and carries with it numerous health risks, it is essential that physicians treat obesity and encourage healthy-weight maintenance within the primary care setting. Effective weight management will require providing the appropriate physical environment for the overweight or obese patient, properly evaluating the impact of a patient's weight on health, evaluating a patient's readiness to change, setting appropriate weight-loss goals, and providing information and help about how to modify dietary and physical activity patterns. Achieving and maintaining weight loss is more likely to be successful when there is a physician-patient partnership where the physician provides support and motivation for the patient's efforts to initiate and maintain a healthy body weight.
Hill
James O
JO
Center for Human Nutrition, University of Colorado, Denver 80262, USA. james.hill@uchsc.edu
Wyatt
Holly
H
D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D001824:Body Constitution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000628:therapy*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D015431:Weight Loss