The screening instrument consists of 6 questions.
Responses are either "Yes" or "No".
where:
• The original wording for diet was "Do you have a diet high in saturated fats, salt, sugar and/or total calories?". However, a person may have a high calorie diet if exercising and may need more salt if sweating. Other measures (obesity, hypertension) should be able to detect some of these factors if inappropriate.
• Open-ended questions for activity and diet might be better than yes/no answers.
• There was no question for cocaine or other drug abuse.
• I also added a question about being diagnosed with heart disease and diabetes mellitus.
Measurements:
(1) Blood pressure (elevated on 3 or more readings).
(2) Total serum cholesterol level (elevated)
(3) Serum triglyceride level (elevated)
(4) LDL/HDL ratio (elevated)
(5) Body weight (> 15% above ideal body weight).
If any of the above findings are abnormal:
(1) An additional workup to identify the cause is warranted before allowing participation in the activity.
(2) Unhealthy practices should be discussed
(3) A gradual increase in activity would be appropriate for an obese patient who has led a sedentary lifestyle.
