Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity: Prevention and Screening in Health Care Settings

The guidelines and prevention resources listed below are provided for nutrition and physical activity partners and professionals in healthcare settings to use in the course of their work. For more resources related to health care settings, please see the Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity: Health Care Resources page.

Guidelines

• Adult: Clinical Guidelines for Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obese Adults - from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
• American Medical Association (AMA) - Public Health: Position on Obesity
• BMI Calculator for Children - Automatically figures and plots BMI for children
• Clinical Guidelines for Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obese Adults was developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. It includes the first Federal guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obesity
• Assessment and Management of Adult Obesity - Article about practical recommendations for addressing adult obesity in the primary care setting.
• Practical Guidelines - The Bright Futures website contains practical guidelines for healthcare professionals including mental health, nutrition, and physical activity for children and adolescents (0-21 years old).

Prevention resources

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• Adult: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force - Screening for and management of obesity in adults: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.
• BMI-for-Age Growth charts - From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Pediatric Recommendations (PDF) - Expert Committee Recommendations on the Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity. The committee was convened by the American Medical Association (AMA) and co-funded in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Related documents: Full Report (PDF)).
• Nutrition and Physical Activity Assessment tools
  • REAP tool: Rapid Eating Assessment for Patients is a brief (about 10 minutes) patient-administered tool to provide a nutrition assessment. The REAP tool (PDF) is available.
  • WAVE tool (PDF) - WAVE (Weight, Activity, Variety, Excess) is a brief tool to identify weight, nutrition, and physical activity issues in adult patients.
• 2015-2020 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans
• Physical Activity Recommendations - General recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.