Too few docs tell patients they're overweight

[homasse]

Too few docs tell patients they're overweight

Many people who are overweight and obese either don't realize it or are in denial -- and too few doctors are setting them straight, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.Researchers analyzed data on roughly 5,500 people who took part in government health surveys between 2005 and

Comments

[shoiryu]

lol yeah no, fuck this.

[brewsternorth]

...it shouldn't be about the weight gdi. D-:<

I am probably close to the 'ideal' (or the 'average', anyway, whatever that means!) BMI, but I have a good few health risk factors for heart disease. Some of which I'm trying to do something about.

[danyjoncew]

Yup, my BMI is normal/close to underweight but I'm definitely not the healthiest person around. I once had a nutritionist tell me my weight was ideal and upon seeing my annoyed/frustrated face she basically told me "well, appearance is a different thing". Cause, you know, the next most important thing after BMI is my shape (or my perception of it), not my eating habits or body fat. Great professional right there.

[scolaro]

Wasn't there an article only recently that said the exact opposite?
That doctors focus too much on the weight of patients and overlook other sources of problems for that reason?

[brewsternorth]

If the anecdata from my flist and _feminism is anything to go by, I think that latter article sounds way closer to the truth.

Also, I wonder if doctors are more likely to tell *female* patients they're overweight?

[intrikate88]

Also, I wonder if doctors are more likely to tell *female* patients they're overweight?

That's a very interesting question, would probably be fairly simple to do a study on that. I couldn't find anything like that in PubMed, though.

[scolaro]

Mhm...I don't know. Somehow I don't see why a doctor should tell a female rather than a male patient that they're overweight.

[brewsternorth]

I'd certainly agree that BMI is a) a crock b) possibly based, like clothing sizes, upon a 'standard size' that is no longer accurate c) unhelpful as a shaming tactic.

[salienne]

Why do you assume all overweight people eat unhealthily, don't exercise, and can actually lose that weight? (Hint: all of these are shitty assumptions.)

[kitschaster]

"If people are told by their doctor that they are overweight, it corrects their perception," says the lead author of the study, Robert Post, M.D., research director of the Virtua Family Medicine Residency in Voorhees, New Jersey.

I hate to join the ancedata crowd, but I've only ever had doctors tell me I'm overweight. Where the fuck did they do this study? Are they asking people who see the doctors, or the doctors themselves if they tell patients? Because either way, I don't think people want to admit on a study that their doctor said they were fat, and I don't think doctors would admit to telling patients that anyway. I could be very wrong, but this study is so wrong that it's painful.