Rethinking primary care systems for obesity

Paul Aveyard and colleagues, in The Lancet, provide optimistic news for the management of obesity in primary care.1 In this parallel, two-arm, randomised trial of screening and a brief intervention for obesity in primary care, Aveyard and colleagues identified a net weight loss benefit at 12 months from a 30 s active intervention by primary care physicians. A striking feature of the study was that patients with obesity (body-mass index of at least 30 kg/m2 or at least 25 kg/m2 if of Asian ethnicity) were invited to participate with no assessment of their readiness to change, yet the majority (2263 [83%] of 2728 potentially eligible participants) were willing to do so, of whom 1882 individuals were eligible to enrol in the trial.