Individualising weight loss prescription : A management tool for clinicians

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global epidemic and a growing cause of comorbidities seen by clinicians. Yet apart from recent guidelines developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council there are few clinical tools available to tackle this problem. OBJECTIVE: This article describes a tool for detecting aspects of both diet and lifestyle likely to adversely affect the body weight of an individual. DISCUSSION: The Diet, Activity and Behaviour Questionnaire (DAB-Q) is designed to identify the nutrition, physical activity and eating behaviours likely to lead to energy imbalance and increased body weight in an individual. This tool can be used in clinical practice to help individualise appropriate behavioural prescriptions for successful weight management. (author abstract)