The Challenge Of Treating Obesity And Overweight

The Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, DC, on April 6, 2017, titled The Challenge of Treating Obesity and Overweight: A Workshop. The discussions covered treatments for obesity, overweight, and severe obesity in adults and children; emerging treatment opportunities; the development of a workforce for obesity treatments; payment and policy considerations; and promising paths to move forward. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Promotes the recognition, treatment, and prevention of conditions of overweight and obesity in the United States.

Obesity and overweight pose significant challenges to the armed forces in the United States, affecting service members (including active duty, guard, and reserve components), veterans, retirees, and their families and communities. The consequences of obesity and overweight in the armed forces influence various aspects of its operations that are critical to national security. On May 7, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, held a workshop titled "Understanding and Overcoming the Challenge of Obesity and Overweight in the Armed Forces." Speakers examined how obesity and overweight are measured in the armed forces and how they affect recruitment, retention, resilience, and readiness; discussed service-specific issues related to these problems and highlighted innovative strategies to address them through improved nutrition, physical activity, and stress management; and offered perspectives from outside of the armed forces on approaches to prevent and treat obesity. They also discussed the challenges and opportunities related to overcoming the concerns posed by obesity and overweight in the armed forces, military families, and their communities, including potential cross-sector opportunities. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

In a brief, clear and easily accessible way, this summary illustrates the dynamics of the obesity epidemic and its impact on public health throughout the WHO European Region, particularly in eastern countries. It describes how factors that increase the risk of obesity are shaped in different settings, such as the family, school, community and workplace. It makes both ethical and economic arguments for accelerating action against obesity, and analyses effective programs and policies in different government sectors, such as education, health, agriculture and trade, urban planning and transport. The summary also describes how to design policies and programs to prevent obesity and how to monitor progress, and calls for specific action by stakeholders: not only government sectors but also the private sector - including food manufacturers, advertisers and traders - and professional consumers' and international and intergovernmental organizations such as the European Union.

Obesity now represents a serious problem in industrialized nations. An increasingly large number of people, especially children, are overweight - leading to subsequent illness and a reduced life expectancy. At long last, with this first evidence-based review of the current intervention strategies for treating and preventing obesity clinicians and health insurers have a guide that allows them to select the most efficient and cost-effective method of treatment for any given state of the illness. The whole is backed by extensive tables, a checklist for quality assurance and an extensive glossary. With a foreword by George A. Bray, Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University and Chief of the Clinical Obesity section: ""Treating and Preventing Obesity - An Evidence Based Review" provides a careful and thoughtful assessment of this disease and the options for its control and treatment. It started with the medical model where cure is the outcome. This valuable report provides a timely new analysis of a growing problem."

Eating Disorders have traditionally been considered apart from public health concerns about increasing obesity. It is evident that these problems are, however, related in important ways. Comorbid obesity and eating disorder is increasing at a faster rate than either obesity or eating disorders alone and one in five people with obesity also presents with an Eating Disorder, commonly but not limited to Binge Eating Disorder. New disorders have emerged such as normal weight or Atypical Anorexia Nervosa. However research and practice too often occurs in parallel with a failure to understand the weight disorder spectrum and consequences of co-morbidity that then contributes to poorer outcomes for people living with a larger size and an Eating Disorder. Urgently needed are trials that will inform more effective assessment, treatment and care where body size and eating disorder symptoms are both key to the research question.