What is it about?
We have created a planning tool for use by teams in primary care to better organize services to prevent and manage obesity for all ages. The tool considers the age, lifestyle and health of typical patients in relation to prevention of weight gain and/or other services needed to manage weight issues in patients. It suggests multiple strategies for managing obesity. The strategies for obesity prevention and management are grouped within these 5 categories of organization activities: 1. Raising awareness of the health aspects of obesity 2. Identification and initial management of the issue 3. Follow-up management to provide ongoing support 4. Expanded services needed by the team 5. Practice initiatives to improve services
Featured Image
Why is it important?
A majority of adults and many children carry excess body weight worldwide. Obesity and its related health issues can be better managed within health services. However, planning services for obesity prevention and treatment is a particular challenge in primary care due to the need to provide services for all age groups, the potential for harms, different perspectives of multiple providers and limited resources. This work was developed in several phases, including input from patients, primary care teams and obesity experts. Guided discussion across different disciplines was used to prioritize strategies for each lifecycle group.
Perspectives
We hope the planning tool will encourage health care professionals to think critically about their current services, based on the available evidence and their capacity to support the health of their patients. We believe the model provides a simple framework for needed conversations among team members, which can in turn improve obesity management across organizations of differing sizes and types.
Paula M Brauer
University of Guelph
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Obesity services planning framework for interprofessional primary care organizations, Primary Health Care Research & Development, October 2016, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1463423616000372.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
