Frank Greenway
Most U.S. health care professionals and most U.S. adults find that losing weight is more difficult today than it was a generation ago, in part due to busy, modern American lifestyles, according to findings from a national survey conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of Zaluvida.
The online poll, conducted in October and November 2017, included a professional arm of 458 health care providers and 503 pharmacists; a consumer arm included more than 1,000 U.S. adults, of which 713 reported currently trying and 284 reported ever trying to lose weight.
The participants cited several factors that likely contribute to inactivity and, therefore, difficulty with weight loss or weight maintenance. Among health care professionals, 95% of primary care providers and 97% of pharmacists reported that the everyday use of mobile, tablet and computer screens prevent Americans from getting as much physical activity as they did in the past, whereas 82% of PCPs and 84% of pharmacists reported that “on-demand” services, such as meal delivery, streaming TV and online shopping lead to the same result. PCPs and pharmacists also reported that only a small percentage of their patients can lose weight and keep it off (12% and 14.1%, respectively).
Most health care providers surveyed also cited the need for a successful weight-loss plan to reach and maintain weight-loss goals, with 89% of PCPs and 87% of pharmacists citing having a weight-loss plan in place as the main factor to achieving success. Most PCPs and pharmacists reported that any weight-loss plan should be sustainable (79% and 69%, respectively), not time-consuming (56% and 55%, respectively) and not require major shifts in routine (54% and 53%, respectively). A minority of PCPs and pharmacists reported that a weight-loss plan should “work quickly and safely” (42% and 36%, respectively).
“These findings highlight that while the way we live has changed dramatically over the past 10 to 20 years, our approach to weight loss has not evolved sufficiently to address those changes,” Frank Greenway, MD, medical director and professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said in a press release. “The results underscore that we need to take a step back and evaluate what weight-loss strategies can best set people up for success given the demands of their daily lives.”
The findings follow a report from a similar web-based survey of U.S. health care providers randomly selected from SERMO’s Global Medical Panel, who were assessed on their knowledge of evidence-based obesity treatment. As Endocrine Today previously reported, family practitioners demonstrated a better understanding of obesity counseling and pharmacotherapy guidelines vs. internists, nurse practitioners and OB-GYNs, according to researchers. After analyzing the results, researchers determined that health care providers were most knowledgeable about physical activity guidelines (49% correct), whereas health care providers demonstrated limited knowledge of evidence-based guidelines on the intensity of obesity counseling (15% correct). The findings were reported in Obesity. – by Regina Schaffer
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