People May Not Know They're Obese Unless a Doctor Tells Them FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Doctors don't seem to be telling patients that they're overweight. And that's not doing them any favors, new research suggests. Getting an honest assessment from a physician appeared to be a key factor in whether or not study participants considered themselves overweight. Almost 37% of people whose body mass index indicated they were overweight but who didn't report hearing that news from a physician didn't think they had a weight problem. Same with 19% of obese participants whose physicians didn't talk to them about weight. By contrast, only 6% of overweight and 3% of obese participants reporting a weight-focused conversation with a physician thought they weren't overweight. "Similarly, participants who reported that they had been told by a physician they were overweight were more likely to desire to lose weight and attempt to lose weight," the study authors write. The research is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina and Imperial College London used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), looking at 7,790 adults between the ages of 20 and 64 who'd had their BMI measured. People with a BMI of 25 or greater are considered overweight, and those with a BMI of at least 30 are considered obese. Participants also answered a questionnaire as part of the NHANES survey. Only 45% of participants qualifying as overweight said they'd ever been told that by a physician. Among those with a BMI qualifying them as obese, 66% reported being told by a doctor they were overweight. Because Americans have gotten heavier in the past few decades, many may compare themselves to friends and family and not realize they're overweight, Robert Post, an author of the study and now an attending physician with Virtua Family Medicine Residency, tells the Health Blog. (He conducted the survey while at MUSC.) ... http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/02/28/people-may-not-know-theyre-obese-unless-a-doctor-tells-them/ _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
