Obese Mexican Americans Lack Advice From Doctors

Only one-half of Mexican American adults who are obese receive diet and exercise advice from their physicians, a new study found, although obesity is on the rise for this group.

“Among this obese population, not seeing 100% of people receiving advice is discouraging. There’s a much higher risk of having negative health consequences,” says Ha Nguyen, PhD, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

In the study, which appears in the American Journal of Health Promotion, lead author Nguyen and colleagues examined data from a survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A group of 1,787 obese Mexican American adults noted whether a doctor or healthcare professional ever advised them to exercise more or eat fewer high-fat and high-cholesterol foods.

Overall, 45% of participants reported their doctor never provided recommendations to increase exercise, and 52% said a healthcare professional never advised them to make dietary improvements.

“The rate of about 50% receiving advice is generally the same as previous reports in the general population,” Nguyen says. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to look at a specific Hispanic subgroup.”

The researchers also discovered that patients who had medical conditions in addition to obesity, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, were more likely to receive counseling on exercise and nutrition. For example, 79% of patients who were obese and had diabetes said they receivedadvice to exercise more compared with 43% of patients whose only diagnosis was obesity.

“When someone’s obese and has diabetes, physicians are much more clued in to the fact that they need to counsel people about lifestyle,” says Matthew O’Brien, MD, an assistant professor of medicine and public health at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Why don’t physicians provide counseling to obese patients? O’Brien cited several reasons, including a lack of financial incentives, a lack of adequate physician training in weight management and counseling, and language barriers between English-speaking physicians and Spanish-speaking patients.

“Providers play an important role. Doctors are in a unique position to promote health behaviors. ... Their patients are more likely toengage in healthy behaviors,” even if they receive simple, brief advice, Nguyen says.

Source: Health Behavior News Service