Obesity management: the challenges ahead

摘要

Obesity is considered by the World Health Organization as a disease since 1997. This has helped to develop a multidisciplinary approach of obesity management involving different health care professionals working in a coordinated and integrated fashion. There are however a number of challenges ahead. In this paper, we discuss some of these : how to define obesity, how to classify and phenotype obese patients, how to guide behavioral changes, how to prepare patients for and follow them after bariatric surgery, and how to adapt the health systems to an increasing number of obese patients seeking help and in need of management of the highest professional level.