Fat Doctors Less Likely To Help Patients Lose Weight

I was at my doctors last week. My doctor is thin, in fact all the doctors I've seen over the past few years seem to be thin. I'm not fat, nor am I thin. Sort of  average I guess.

If I was an overweight doctor, and a patient brought up the desire to loose weight, I'd refer them to a dietician. What else could I do? If I can't take care of my own weight, how could I expect my patient to have faith in me?  Then I'd celebrate that brilliant maneuver with a large pepperoni, and sausage pizza..

In a study of 500 primary care physicians around the country, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that a doctor’s own size influenced how he or she cared for patients with weight problems. Overweight or obese physicians were less likely to discuss weight loss with heavy patients: only 18% of these doctors discussed losing weight with their patients while 30% of normal weight physicians did.

What’s more, the researchers found that 93% of doctors diagnosed obesity in their patients only if they believed their own weight was equal to or less than that of their patients; only 7% of doctors who believed their weight exceeded that of their patients diagnosed obesity.

 

via Fat Doctors Are Less Likely to Help Patients Lose Weight - TIME.com.