New study reveals: The Israeli waits nine years until he talks to a doctor about his weight, compared to six years in European countries • Expert: "Time to change the treatment of the subject"
"Findings highlight the need to change the way obesity is treated"
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The Israeli patient waits nine years to talk to the doctor about the problem of obesity, compared to only six years in European countries.
This emerges from an Israeli study that is currently being published at the European Union Conference on Obesity.
It also shows that most patients (68%) wanted the attending physician to initiate a conversation with them about their weight during visits to him.
On the other hand, patients who mustered up courage and talked to their doctor about their weight problem did not feel he had solutions for them: 59% of patients who chose to talk to their doctor about dealing with weight over the past five years found that these conversations helped little or were not helpful at all.
The Israeli study involved 750 obese patients and 169 family physicians.
The study also shows that about half of the patients (51%) testified that they left the conversation with the doctor with negative feelings (compared to 44% of the patients in the international studies) and 5% of them even reported experiencing a real insult (compared to 3% in the global studies).
Motivation problem
The study is unique in that it examined the attitudes of treating physicians toward their patients.
Doctors were asked why they do not talk to patients about the weight problem.
Most of them thought that patients were not interested in it (71%) or that they had no motivation to lose weight (70%).
Patients, however, took a different stance: 92% of patients reported that they had tried at least once in the past to make a significant effort to reduce their weight, but only 28% of them had shared their doctor on the subject in the past six months.
It was also found that in the last three years, 38% of patients were able to lose 5% or more of their weight, but only a quarter of them were able to maintain the weight loss for a year or more.
While physicians believed that the significant barrier to weight loss was unhealthy eating habits (89%), only 63% of patients believed so.
84% of physicians cited lack of exercise as a barrier to weight loss, compared with 73% of patients.
At the same time, 70% of patients and 95% of caregivers agree that obesity is a chronic disease and 88% believe that the responsibility for weight loss lies on their shoulders, but only 19% of physicians thought it was the patients' responsibility.
"Escort therapy"
Dr. Raz Hagoel, a specialist physician and director of the Medical Center for the Treatment of Obesity, said that these findings highlight the need to change the way we treat obesity - from earlier intervention, through taking initiative and encouraging dialogue with the patient to maintaining his dignity and feelings.
Early intervention will not only save many years of daily weight struggle but will also significantly reduce the risk of developing many diseases related to obesity.
This study also shows that the most effective treatment for obesity is through multidisciplinary guidance and treatment - not only to achieve weight loss results, but also to maintain long-term achievements. "