Response

Michael Vallis; Helena Piccinini-Vallis; Arya M. Sharma; Yoni Freedhoff

Dr Plourde has suggested that the modified 5 As for obesity counseling in primary care¹ be expanded to include a sixth A: arrange. He nicely justifies this suggestion by illustrating how assisting patients to navigate emotional and practical issues of seeking supportive resources over time is a substantial clinical task in itself. Dr Plourde has also explicitly demonstrated how arrange can be appended to the 5 As framework that we outlined. Our model incorporated arrange within the assist function, but we appreciate this spirit of collaboration and would heartily endorse Dr Plourde’s suggestion. The purpose of tools such as these is to guide the busy practitioner through the somewhat confusing realm of navigating behaviour change in the real world. Thank you, Dr Plourde.

Footnotes

Competing interests

Dr Freedhoff is the cofounder of Bariatric Medical Institute, coauthor, with Dr Sharma, of Best Weight: A Practical Guide to Office-Based Obesity Management, and author of Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work. None of the other authors has any competing interests to declare.

Reference

↵
1. Vallis M,
2. Piccinini-Vallis H,
3. Sharma AM,
4. Freedhoff Y
. Modified 5 As. Minimal intervention for obesity counseling in primary care. Can Fam Physician 2013;59:27-31. (Eng), e1–5 (Fr).
OpenUrl Abstract/FREE Full Text