Israelis wait an average of nine years before consulting a doctor about weight gan, compared to an average of six years for Europeans, a new Israeli study reveals.
The research, presented this week at the European and International Conference on Obesity, indicates that 68% of Israeli patients would like their doctors to initiate discussion about their weight during check-ups. However, 59% of patients who raised the issue of their weight with their primary caregivers in the past five years felt that the discussion did little or nothing to help them lose weight.
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The study included 750 obese Israelis and 169 general practitioners.
Another finding was that 51% of patients said they had "negative feelings" after speaking to their doctors about their weight, compared to 44% of patients who said in the same in international studies. Another 5% of Israeli patients said they felt "hurt" after speaking to their doctors about their weight, the study showed.
In addition to examining the attitudes of extremely overweight patients, the study also looked at doctors' attitudes toward their patients. Doctors were asked why they do not discuss their patients' weight problems. Most (71%) said they felt that their patients were disinclined to discuss the issue or were unmotivated to lose weight (70%).
Interestingly, patients said otherwise, with 92% telling researchers that they had tried at least once to make a significant effort to lose weight. Still, only 28% of patient respondents said they had involved their doctor in these efforts in the past six months.
The study also found that in the last three years, 38% of the patients surveyed had managed to lose 5% or more of their body weight, but only one-quarter of those had managed to keep the weight off for at least a year.
While 89% of the doctors surveyed said they thought that patients' eating habits were the most significant obstacle to them losing weight, only 63% of patients surveyed pointed to eating habits as the main difficulty in weight loss. A total of 84% of the doctors noted lack of physical activity as an obstacle to weight loss, compared to 73% of patients.
However, 70% of patients surveyed and 95% of doctors surveyed agreed that obesity was a chronic health condition, and 88% of patients said they were responsible for making sure they lost weight, compared to 19% of doctors who said the main responsibility lay with the patients.
Dr. Raz Hagoel, director of the Dr. Raz Medical Weight Loss Clinic, said, "These findings underscore the need to change the way in which we treat obesity, starting with earlier intervention, including taking the initiative and encouraging conversation the patients, as well as respecting their dignity.
"Early intervention will not only avoid years of daily weight battles, but also significantly reduce the risk of conditions associated with obesity," Hagoel said.
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