QUEBEC CITY — Society may be willing to label anyone who's not rail thin as being overweight, but a new study suggests that physicians are loath to do so, even with the obese.
Researchers randomly identified 486 obese or overweight patients aged 18–70 years in a family medicine clinic by calculating their body mass index (kg/m
“There's still some discomfort. How do we bring it up?” said Cassandra Arceneaux, M.D., of the University of Texas, Galveston. “There needs to be education for the physician on how to talk to patients about weight.”
Another problem may be the way obesity is documented in the chart.
“Some physicians said that it doesn't make sense to talk about obesity because you can't bill for it and get paid,” she said.
Only 3% of overweight (BMI 25–29.9) patients were diagnosed, compared with 7.8% of patients with stage 1 obesity (BMI 30–34.9), 28% of patients with stage 2 obesity (BMI 35–39.9), and 61% of patients with stage 3 obesity (BMI 40 or greater).
Of the total sample, these patients accounted for 37.5%, 26.9%, 16.6%, and 19%, respectively.
Of stage 3 obesity patients, 7% received education compared with 1% of overweight patients, 2.5% of stage 1 obesity patients, and 4% of stage 2 obesity patients.