Obesity Counseling & Management
Obesity is one of the most common presenting
chronic medical conditions in primary care, yet it is not adequately treated.
Physicians are often reluctant to counsel patients because of their limited
training in treating chronic weight problems and negative attitudes toward
obese patients. This study evaluated the feasibility of training physicians
to provide weight control counseling to their patients. Eleven physicians
were randomly assigned to either an obesity-counseling skills training
group or to a control group. Physicians in the counseling skills group
received training in behavioral and motivational weight control techniques
using a five-step patient-centered model; they were also given patient
materials for use in their practice. To evaluate pretraining to posttraining
changes in physician counseling behavior, independent samples of patients
with obesity were surveyed immediately after their visit to the physician's
office. Physicians in both the counseling skills training and the control
groups discussed weight with 42 percent to 47 percent of their patients
at baseline. This increased to 89 percent in physicians who received training,
whereas it remained at 42 percent in control physicians. Scores on a counseling
measure also significantly increased from a mean of 2.7 to 9.9 in the
counseling group, whereas scores in the control group remained low and
stable (2.3 and 1.9, respectively). The training program was effective
in improving the frequency and quality of counseling that physicians delivered
to their patients with obesity. Future research is needed to evaluate
the effect of physician counseling on the weight and physical activity
level of their patients.
Source: Simkin-Silverman LR, Wing RR. Department
of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
1997
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