CDC: Fewer doctors urge weight loss

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 Posted: 1:39 PM EDT (1739 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet...s.ap/index.html

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Many doctors are not advising their obese patients to lose weight despite a national obesity epidemic, the government said.

Only about 40 percent of doctors told their obese patients to lose weight in 2000, a decrease from 42.5 percent in 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

Meanwhile, patients who were advised to lose weight were nearly three times more likely to drop the excess pounds than those who did not have the discussion with their doctor, CDC officials said in a study.

Doctors "should recognize that obesity, similar to hypertension and diabetes, is a chronic condition and as such requires continued follow up," said Dr. Omer Abid, a CDC researcher.

"We need to investigate why advice from the health care profession is low," he said.

In 1998, federal guidelines urged health officials to advise overweight patients to lose weight because obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, heart disease and certain cancers.

About 30 percent of all U.S. adults are obese, the CDC said.

Some doctors have said they are not confident in counseling their patients to lose weight because they do not have enough formal training about obesity. Other experts say the problem stems from ignorance in other crucial health matters.

"Physicians in general are illiterate about nutrition," said Dr. Andrew Weil, founder and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and author of "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health."

He said the amount of education on nutrition that doctors receive is either nonexistent or substandard.