Obesity crisis comprised of danger and opportunity

• OBESITY NOW IS recognized as a national epidemic. An estimated 64% of the US population is classified as overweight or obese. Environmental factors, such as increased food portions and sedentary lifestyles, have contributed to this epidemic.• THE EPIDEMIC AFFECTS CHILDREN, with 15% of children in the United States aged one to 19 years overweight or obese.• NUMEROUS GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (eg, US Food and Drug Administration, Medicare, Internal Revenue Service) are working with the health care community to combat obesity.• THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES causes of obesity and offers possible solutions, such as healthy lifestyle changes, surgical options, and medication therapy. AORN J 80 (December 2004) 1069–1078.

The pros and cons of using PDAs for dietary self-monitoring

• PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS (PDAs), are handheld minicomputers used for tasks such as referencing, documentation, and data storage and retrieval.• THESE DEVICES can help perioperative nurses solve problems associated with updating, maintaining, and retrieving surgical preference cards and accessing treatment and medication references.• CHOOSING A PDA and accessories, finding basic software, and writing a perioperative nursing program can be painless, even for a novice.• NURSING DOCUMENTATION can be accelerated and streamlined with the use of PDAs, which leaves perioperative nurses more time for quality patient care. AORN J 78 (December 2003) 996–1001.