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Gathering historical information about a person’s experience with weight gain and loss is useful during the assessment to gather details about strategies that have been helpful in the past. This assessment can help to build rapport with the patient, increase patient understanding and perspective, encourage the patient to verbalize and reflect on personal experience, recognize and reward the patient’s strengths and past successes, leverage the patient’s motivation, add to the patient’s confidence, and reduce the patient’s feelings of guilt and shame.A thorough medication history should be taken to identify potential precipitating factors contributing to weight gain, loss, and/or regain.
The OPQRST mnemonic is another tool that primary care providers can use to take a clinically appropriate weight history during the initial conversation with the patient (Kushner, 2017). The components associated with this mnemonic are:
Overview | Assess BMI | Body Composition Assessments | Assess Function | Screen for Sarcopenic Obesity | Assess for Obesity-Related Complications | Take a Thorough Weight History | Assess Medications | Assess References