Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews ( JPCRR) is a peerreviewed scientific journal whose mission is to communicate clinical and bench research findings, with the goal of improving the quality of human health, the care of the individual patient, and the care of populations.
Recommended CitationWalker RE, Kusch J, Fink JT, Nelson DA, Morris G 3rd, Skalla J, Cisler RA. Facilitating factors and barriers to weight management in women: physician perspectives. J Patient Cent Res Rev. 2018;5:18-27. doi: 10.17294/2330-0698 4,5 For women, prevalence of overweight and obesity has varied from 64.1% to 65.8% to 63.7% in 2007-2008, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012, respectively. 4-6 Addressing overweight and obesity in both men and women has been a challenge for medical and public health practice, but perhaps more so in women given the race-by-sex differences observed for these conditions. 5,6 Using national data from 2011-2012, Ogden and colleagues reported age-adjusted overweight and obesity prevalence of 69.2%, 78.6%,
PurposeThe complexity of addressing overweight and obesity in women has been an ongoing public health and health care challenge. While the mechanism for addressing overweight and obesity in women remains unclear, it has been speculated that disparities in overweight and obesity by race and gender contribute to the complexity. The purpose of the present study was to examine perceptions of primary care physicians when discussing weight management with their patients.
MethodsWe conducted focus group discussions exploring facilitators and barriers to discussing weight management and weight loss among women patients. Participants included 18 family medicine and internal medicine physicians who were recruited using a snowball sampling technique from two large urban institutions. Focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim. Responses were then codified and analyzed in frequency of occurrence using specialized computer software.
ResultsNine themes emerged from group discussions. These recurring themes reflected three overarching critical points: 1) potential utility of the primary care setting to address weight management; 2) the importance of positive patient-provider communication in supporting weight loss efforts; and 3) acknowledgement of motivation as intrinsic or extrinsic, and its role in obesity treatment.
ConclusionsPhysician perceptions of their own lack of education or training and their inability to influence patient behaviors play crucial roles in discussing weight management with patients. (J Patient Cent Res Rev.
Most low-income Americans fail to meet physical activity recommendations. Inactivity and poor diet contribute to obesity, a risk factor for multiple chronic diseases. Health promotion activities have the potential to improve health outcomes for low-income populations. Measuring the effectiveness of these activities, however, can be challenging in community settings. A "Biking for Health" study tested the impact of a bicycling intervention on overweight or obese low-income Latino and African American adults to reduce barriers to cycling and increase physical activity and fitness. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in summer 2015. A 12-week bicycling intervention was implemented at two sites with low-income, overweight, or obese Latino and African American adults. We found that randomized controlled trial methodology was suboptimal for use in this small pilot study and that it negatively affected participation. More discussion is needed about the effectiveness of using traditional research methods in community settings to assess the effectiveness of health promotion interventions. Modifications or alternative methods may yield better results. The aim of this article is to discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of using traditional research methods to assess health promotion interventions in community-based settings.
Centered Research and Reviews (JPCRR) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal whose mission is to communicate clinical and bench research findings, with the goal of improving the quality of human health, the care of the individual patient, and the care of populations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.