Taking a Weight History – Using Mnemonics to Learn a Missing Skill in Medical Education

A major challenge facing medical educators today is to adequately train current and future physicians in the prevention and treatment of obesity, a key contributor to the global non-communicable disease burden. One of the central skills to be performed in the clinical encounter is to conduct a thorough and informative obesity-related history. Recent studies have confirmed the importance of the timing, pattern and trajectory of body weight as a predictor of multiple co-morbid conditions as well as future obesity. To provide a more structured and pedagogical approach to learning how to take a meaningful weight history, the familiar mnemonic "OPQRST" can be applied to facilitate this important element of the patient encounter.