Factors that will influence the risk from obesity include:

• Advancing age
• The duration of obesity
• Family history of conditions such as CHD and diabetes
• Existing medical complications
• Smoking
• The level of physical activity

Building a clinical picture of those factors will help to define the overall risk to a patient’s health. It may be more constructive to have a questionnaire to gather this type of information. Issues arising from this could then be discussed during the consultation process.