AAFP Renovates Clinical Guidance Page on Obesity
June 1, 2022, 9:40 a.m. News Staff — Survey results show that AAFP members consider clinical guidance one of their most valuable membership benefits. That’s why for the past year, the Academy has been updating the Clinical Recommendations section of AAFP.org, starting with three conditions: COPD, diabetes and — most recently — obesity. Each new clinical guidance webpage incorporates clinical, implementation and education guidance to ensure standardized patient care for conditions that family physicians frequently encounter.
Obesity and Healthy Lifestyle: Take a Look Inside
Talking with patients about obesity can be difficult, and there may be multiple contributing factors, such as social determinants of health, that present challenges for clinicians to properly address. The just-released Obesity and Healthy Lifestyle webpage on AAFP.org provides members with easy access to clinical guidance and information on obesity and healthy lifestyle habits. Family physicians can use these resources to support patient conversations on weight management, healthy eating habits and physical activity levels.
The new clinical guidance webpage is divided into six sections focused on preventing obesity and promoting a healthy weight.
Screening Recommendations directs members to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on obesity and related conditions such as hypertension and lipid disorders. Each recommendation page also indicates whether the AAFP supports the task force’s clinical preventive service recommendations on the topic.
Treatment and Management Recommendations links members to the USPSTF’s clinical preventive service recommendation on behavioral counseling interventions to promote a healthy diet and physical activity for cardiovascular disease prevention in adults with cardiovascular risk factors.
Story Highlights
Managing Your Practice helps members learn about chronic care management, coordinated care and annual wellness visits, and includes descriptions of various CPT codes and quality measures.
Implementation Tools and Considerations features links to resources family physicians can use to help patients establish and achieve fitness goals, along with two AAFP TIPS courses on quality improvement and standing orders.
Education introduces members to CME courses and journal articles, in addition to patient-friendly articles from familydoctor.org on obesity, weight loss and nutrition.
Related Resources provides links to other topics associated with obesity, including diabetes, oral health, stigma and implicit bias.
This topic hub also links members to Incorporating Lifestyle Medicine into Family Practice, a package of assessment tools and resources to help FPs integrate lifestyle medicine into their practices.
More Topic Updates Coming Soon
The updated Obesity and Healthy Lifestyle webpage is the latest in an ongoing project to improve the Clinical Recommendations section of AAFP.org.
In July 2021, the Academy developed a new clinical guidance webpage on COPD, followed by a new clinical guidance page on diabetes in December 2021. More topic pages will be released in the next year.
Members can bookmark the Academy’s Clinical Recommendations index page for the latest updates, or email the AAFP at clinicalpolicies@aafp.org to provide feedback on the new pages or suggest topics for future updates.