Doctors Advised to Screen for Obesity

In response to ever-expanding waistlines, an independent panel of medical experts recommends that doctors and other health providers screen all adults for obesity.

People who are obese should be offered intensive counseling and be advised on strategies for losing weight, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which advises government health agencies.

"We need to stem the rising epidemic of obesity in this nation," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said in a prepared statement. "These findings show that clinicians can have a significant impact on the health of their adult patients by screening for obesity and offering or referring patients to intensive counseling and behavioral interventions."

It's no secret that Americans have gotten heavier in recent years. During the last 40 years, the percentage of U.S. adults who are obese jumped from 13 percent to 31 percent. Another 34 percent of U.S. adults are overweight but not obese, according to the report in the December 2nd issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Despite the steep rise in obesity, only 42 percent of obese adults report being advised by a healthcare professional to lose weight.

To see whether screening is a good idea, the panel reviewed a variety of scientific studies.

Based on the available evidence, the panel concludes that body mass index, or BMI, is a reliable way of identifying people who are at increased risk of health problems because of overweight and obesity.

BMI is a measure of obesity that takes into account weight and height. A person with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, while someone with a BMI of 30 or more is obese.

You can calculate your BMI by dividing your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared multiplied by 703. Check our BMI calculator here.

According to the task force, there is enough evidence to show that high-intensity counseling - about diet, exercise or both - in combination with other weight-loss strategies can help obese people lose weight.

Studies have shown that weight loss can reduce several health risk factors, including cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar, according to the panel.

The task force concludes that there is not enough evidence to recommend that healthcare professionals also offer counseling to people who are overweight, but not obese. This does not mean that such counseling is a bad idea, but just that too few studies have examined the effects of counseling overweight people.

SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, December 2, 2003.

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