ESI Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Obesity in India

The Executive Committee of the Endocrine Society of India appointed a writing committee for framing the guidelines. The members of the committee were chosen from endocrinologists involved in research as well as clinical care of obesity and related disorders. The writing committee was chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. The writing committee met on several occasions and came up with 14 sub-sections under which the guidelines would be formulated. Each member was then allotted one or more subsections in order to search the literature, including all existing literature, and suggest recommendations for that subsection. Each recommendation had two options: (a) Recommended care as the primary recommendation and (b) limited care recommendation for resource-limited settings. The recommendations are numbered as 1.1, 1.2, etc., where the first number indicates the subsection while the second denotes the serial number of the recommendation. The limited care recommendations are denoted by (L) after the recommendation number (such as 1.1 (L)). An abridged version of the document for primary care providers was also made. Once the members had completed the literature search and formulated the recommendations, all the subsections were compiled together and circulated amongst the committee members for their comments. Any corrections or suggestions by the other committee members were incorporated into the document. The chairman of the writing committee approved this draft and forwarded it to the Executive Committee of the ESI. The members of the Executive Committee, consisting of national experts in the field of endocrinology, vetted the document and gave their inputs. After incorporation of these inputs, the draft was uploaded on the official website of ESI and inputs or suggestions were sought from all members of the ESI or any other stakeholder. The inputs were considered for inclusion as per their merit and relevance; the draft was then finalized for publication in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism.