TY - JOUR
T1 - Discussing weight with obese primary care patients
T2 - Physician and patient perceptions
AU - Greiner, K. Allen
AU - Born, Wendi
AU - Hall, Sandra
AU - Hou, Qingjiang
AU - Kimminau, Kim S.
AU - Ahluwalia, Jasjit S.
PY - 2008/5/1
Y1 - 2008/5/1
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patient-provider agreement on whether weight and related behaviors were discussed during routine visits. DESIGN: Post-visit survey assessments of patients and providers. PARTICIPANTS: Obese patients make up the majority of all patients seen in primary care (PC). The patients and physicians were recruited at the time of PC visits. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Percent patient-physician agreement and patient, provider and practice characteristics associated with agreement. Patients (456) and physicians (30) agreed about whether or not they discussed weight, physical activity (PA), and diet for 61% of office visits. There was disagreement on one of the items (weight, PA, or diet) for 23% of office visits, and for 2 or more of the items for 16% of the visits. Agreement was relatively greater for discussing weight than for discussing diet or physical activity. Physicians reported discussing weight issues more often than did patients. Overall patient-physician agreement was 0.51-0.59 (weighted Kappa statistic). In a multivariate analyses of factors associated with patient-physician agreement, health insurance (odds ratio [OR]=3.67, p value=0.002), physician description of patient weight status (OR=2.27, p value=0.002), patient report of how weight relates to health (OR=1.70, p value=0.04), and female patient gender (OR=1.62, p=value=0.02) were significantly related to agreement. CONCLUSIONS: Patients and providers disagreed about whether or not weight issues were discussed in a large number of primary care encounters in this study. Physicians may be able to improve care for their obese patients by focusing discussions on specific details of diet and physical activity behaviors, and by clarifying that patients perceive weight-related information has been shared.
AB - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patient-provider agreement on whether weight and related behaviors were discussed during routine visits. DESIGN: Post-visit survey assessments of patients and providers. PARTICIPANTS: Obese patients make up the majority of all patients seen in primary care (PC). The patients and physicians were recruited at the time of PC visits. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Percent patient-physician agreement and patient, provider and practice characteristics associated with agreement. Patients (456) and physicians (30) agreed about whether or not they discussed weight, physical activity (PA), and diet for 61% of office visits. There was disagreement on one of the items (weight, PA, or diet) for 23% of office visits, and for 2 or more of the items for 16% of the visits. Agreement was relatively greater for discussing weight than for discussing diet or physical activity. Physicians reported discussing weight issues more often than did patients. Overall patient-physician agreement was 0.51-0.59 (weighted Kappa statistic). In a multivariate analyses of factors associated with patient-physician agreement, health insurance (odds ratio [OR]=3.67, p value=0.002), physician description of patient weight status (OR=2.27, p value=0.002), patient report of how weight relates to health (OR=1.70, p value=0.04), and female patient gender (OR=1.62, p=value=0.02) were significantly related to agreement. CONCLUSIONS: Patients and providers disagreed about whether or not weight issues were discussed in a large number of primary care encounters in this study. Physicians may be able to improve care for their obese patients by focusing discussions on specific details of diet and physical activity behaviors, and by clarifying that patients perceive weight-related information has been shared.
KW - Obesity
KW - Patient-provider discussion
KW - Total primary care
KW - Weight-related behaviors
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U2 - 10.1007/s11606-008-0553-9
DO - 10.1007/s11606-008-0553-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 18322760
AN - SCOPUS:42449118805
VL - 23
SP - 581
EP - 587
JO - Journal of General Internal Medicine
JF - Journal of General Internal Medicine
SN - 0884-8734
IS - 5
ER -