The Practical Guide: A Clear Manual for Practitioners On Obesity Evaluation and Treatment

Long Beach, CA – October 30, 2000 The North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO), in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, announced today at the annual meeting of the North American Association of Obesity, the availability of the final print version of The Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. The Guide, a joint production of NAASO and NHLBI, describes how health care practitioners can provide their patients with the direction and support needed to lose weight effectively and help keep it off.

A committee of clinical experts from NAASO adapted The Practical Guide from the Evidence Report developed by an Expert Panel convened by NHLBI. The Guide provides the basic tools needed to assess and manage both obesity and overweight. It includes practical information on dietary therapy, physical activity, and behavior therapy, while also providing guidance on the appropriate use of pharmacotherapy and surgery as treatment options.

Overweight and obesity are serious health problems. With the release of the Healthy People 2010 Objectives for the Nation, the Department of Health and Human Services lists overweight and obesity as one of the 10 leading health indicators of major public health concern in the United States today. More than half of American adults 20 years old or older are overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity are especially prevalent in some minority groups, as well as among those with lower incomes and less education. An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese.*

"Obesity dramatically increases health risks, including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and coronary heart disease," said Louis Aronne, M.D., F.A.C.P., director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York Hospital, New York, N.Y., and Chair of the NAASO Practical Guide Task Force.

The Practical Guide will be distributed to primary care physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, and registered dietitian, as well as to other interested health care practitioners. It is hoped that the tools provided in the Guide will complement the skills needed to manage effectively the millions of overweight and obese individuals attempting to control their weight.

In 1995, under the aegis of the NHLBI's Obesity Education Initiative, and in cooperation with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the first Expert Panel on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults was convened to develop evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on overweight and obesity for primary care physicians and allied health care practitioners. The impetus behind the panel was the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, and the need to alert practitioners to accompanying health risks.

The Expert Panel consisted of 24 specialists, eight ex-officio members, and a consultant methodologist representing the fields of primary care, clinical nutrition, exercise physiology, psychology, physiology, and pulmonary disease. The chair of that panel, F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D. is both former President of NAASO and Editor-in-Chief of NAASO's peer-reviewed journal, Obesity Research. The panel developed and released, in September 1998, the Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults: Evidence Report. The Evidence Report is available from the NHLBI and NAASO.

The guidelines have been endorsed by more than 40 organizations with concerns about obesity, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association, the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control, and the NIDDK National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity.

The North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO) is a leading scientific society dedicated to obesity. NAASO is committed to encouraging research on the causes and treatment of obesity, and to keeping the scientific community and the public informed of new advances, as obesity becomes more widely recognized as a disease and a public health threat.

This version of the Guide can be found on the NAASO Web site at The Practical Guide: Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults and the NHLBI Web site at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/practgde.htm. Print copies are available from the NHLBI Obesity Education Initiative by contacting the NHLBI Health Information Center at (301)-592-8573.