Rani N Rao and Jessica Bartfield
Background: Among patients with obesity, the subset of patients with severe obesity has been increasing at the fastest rate. Although there is literature which suggests modest effectiveness of weight loss counselling by primary care providers, many primary care clinicians face frustration with the management of obesity. Reasons for this include time constraints, poor reimbursement, and perceived inadequacy or futility of obesity treatments. Despite these obstacles, we hypothesize that primary care clinicians still positively impact weight loss for patients with severe obesity.
Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of patients with severe obesity seen in the primary care clinics of a university health system. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated and tracked for each office visit during the study period of four years. The difference between the initial weight and final weight in the study period was calculated and correlated to visit frequency.
Results: There was a positive correlation between visit frequency and the magnitude of change in BMI.
Conclusions: The positive correlation between visit frequency and change in BMI supports the importance of primary care clinicians in the fight against obesity.