The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends that physicians screen all adults for obesity and offer counseling and other consultation to promote weight control.

The recommendations were published in the Dec. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. The task force, chaired by Alfred Berg, chair of family medicine at the UW, is an independent panel sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Screening and treatment are necessary to meet the rising problem of obesity in the United States, the task force said, because the condition is associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, premature death, and other significant medical problems. In the last 40 years, the rate of obesity in the United States has climbed from 13 percent to 27 percent, and the percentage of overweight Americans has risen from 31 percent to 34 percent.

The task force recommended using the body mass index (BMI) to determine if patients are overweight or obese. It then suggests offering obese patients intensive counseling and behavioral interventions to promote sustained weight loss. That combination is a more effective strategy, the task force said, than less-intensive counseling or counseling not paired with behavioral interventions.

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