AAFP Works With WellPoint to Produce CME Bulletin on Childhood Obesity
By Barbara Bein
10/15/2008
The AAFP's latest CME Bulletin, "Assessment, Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity," tackles a health issue many practicing family physicians are becoming all too familiar with: managing obesity in their younger patients.
According to the bulletin, obesity in children and adolescents has more than doubled in the past 25 years and can have a significant adverse impact on adult health, including the potential for pulmonary, endocrine, gastrointestinal, hepatic, reproductive and cardiovascular disorders.
"Family physicians are well-positioned to help young patients and their families achieve and maintain a healthy weight," the bulletin notes. "Successful prevention and treatment of childhood obesity is essential for good health throughout life."
"Family physicians are well-positioned to help young patients and their families achieve and maintain a healthy weight," the bulletin notes. "Successful prevention and treatment of childhood obesity is essential for good health throughout life."
Topic Breakdown
The bulletin, which focuses on children and teens ages 2-19 years
- describes the causes and consequences of childhood obesity;
- offers information and resources to help physicians assess weight status in these patients;
- discusses how to prevent obesity through healthy eating and physical activity strategies; and
- outlines four stages of treatment that incorporate counseling, structured weight management, and, if needed, comprehensive multidisciplinary intervention and tertiary care intervention.
Also included in the bulletin are links to online resources that can be used to calculate a child's body mass index percentile, an online pediatric weight management flow chart and other Web-based obesity assessment tools.
Although medical -- and even surgical -- interventions are discussed by the bulletin's authors, physicians' willingness and ability to counsel patients and their families about lifestyle changes to prevent obesity or to reduce or maintain weight are highlighted throughout the bulletin as key factors in promoting long-term successful outcomes.
Although medical -- and even surgical -- interventions are discussed by the bulletin's authors, physicians' willingness and ability to counsel patients and their families about lifestyle changes to prevent obesity or to reduce or maintain weight are highlighted throughout the bulletin as key factors in promoting long-term successful outcomes.
Produced thanks to an educational grant from WellPoint Inc.'s State Sponsored Business, the bulletin was prepared by freelance writer Stef Stendardo in consultation with Wendelin Slusser, M.D., assistant clinical director of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Family physician Goutham Rao, M.D., clinical director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, served as medical editor for the bulletin.
The bulletin culminates a yearlong collaborative effort by the Academy and WellPoint, which is one of the largest insurers in the nation. Harvinder Sareen, Ph.D, M.P.H., director of clinical programs, Health Care Quality and Innovations, for WellPoint, told AAFP News Now that the collaboration represents an extension of WellPoint's own initiatives to address childhood obesity.
"Our goal through this CME (activity) is to provide a value-added resource that primary care physicians can incorporate into their practices to help them provide optimal care to families with children," said Sareen.
The bulletin also complements the Academy's own Americans in Motion, or AIM, initiative, which debuted in 2003 and encourages family physicians to promote fitness -- physical activity, nutrition and emotional well-being -- with every patient, every visit.
Specifically, the three-part AIM initiative targets
The bulletin culminates a yearlong collaborative effort by the Academy and WellPoint, which is one of the largest insurers in the nation. Harvinder Sareen, Ph.D, M.P.H., director of clinical programs, Health Care Quality and Innovations, for WellPoint, told AAFP News Now that the collaboration represents an extension of WellPoint's own initiatives to address childhood obesity.
"Our goal through this CME (activity) is to provide a value-added resource that primary care physicians can incorporate into their practices to help them provide optimal care to families with children," said Sareen.
The bulletin also complements the Academy's own Americans in Motion, or AIM, initiative, which debuted in 2003 and encourages family physicians to promote fitness -- physical activity, nutrition and emotional well-being -- with every patient, every visit.
Specifically, the three-part AIM initiative targets
- family physicians, calling on them to serve as fitness role models;
- family medicine office staff, charging them with promoting a healthy patient care environment; and
- patients and the public in both clinical and community settings, encouraging them to take an active role in safeguarding their own fitness.
CME Bulletins provide AAFP members with state-of-the-art information on a disease, other health condition or medical trend. The childhood obesity CME Bulletin has been reviewed and is acceptable for up to 1 Prescribed credit from the AAFP.
