As the world struggles to fight the incurable diseases that burden the human population, a silent epidemic infiltrates nations. Obesity rates worldwide has nearly doubled since 1980, affecting both children and adults in increasing numbers.
High body weight and obesity cause an estimated 3.4 million deaths a year, and a decreased quality of life is manifested by diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Efforts to eradicate the problem at hand are limited because of the high level of effort that must go into the feat.
In the age of technology, video games and elevators, many have little incentive to take part in physical activity on a daily basis. Not only this, but food companies often have a mind of their own and a purpose to sell foods that will be overconsumed.
After all, hasn’t this been the way of the free market economy? The more the better, the faster the better, and the least effort input the better. Unfortunately, this lifestyle does not coincide with health needs. The issue of obesity cannot be solved with the ingestion of a pill (at least not yet). When obesity asks humans to start a long journey of less, a journey that takes time, control and more expensive foods, few decide to proceed. Those who do so often turn to health professionals who specialize in nutrition, mental health and exercise for support.
Health professionals are no exception to the growing obesity problem. And with demanding work hours, they are sometimes faced with similar exercise deficiencies and complicated food choices.
A new study by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health surveyed 500 non-physician health professionals in an attempt to more fully understand the patient-professional relationship in terms of obesity, and it compared overweight and normal-weight health counselors.
The health providers surveyed all considered themselves capable of giving weight loss advice to their patients, feeling that their patients were all receptive to their advice. While 52 percent of normal weight counselors thought they were successfully helping patients lose weight, only 29 percent of the overweight counselors did. More health professionals also reported feeling successful at helping morbidly obese patients, which might indicate a lack of action with people who are at more preventable stages of the disease.
Similar studies in 2012 compared body mass index (BMI) effects of health physicians in relation to obesity treatment and diagnosis. Doctors with normal BMIs were found more likely to give dietand exercise counseling than overweight physicians. Normal-weight physicians also thought that they were responsible for modeling healthy weight-related behaviors (72 percent vs. 56 percent). Physicians were found more likely to diagnose obesity (93 percent vs. seven percent) and initiate weight loss conversations (89 percent vs. 11 percent) if they perceived their patient to have a similar or higher BMI than their own.
A crucial element of patient trust is congruence between what the practitioner is saying and what the practitioner is doing.
This gives physicians a great responsibility as role models. They are capable of either propagating the issue through a lack of action or of instilling and provoking life-changing decisions in all of the patients they have a chance to interact with.
