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Counseling helps reduce obesity, but not by much
Posted March 12, 2012
Intensive, two-year behavioral counseling helped obese, sedentary patients cut their waist circumference, but only a little, said an Archives of Internal Medicine study published online Feb. 27 (link).
Trained health educators met with 249 patients in family medicine clinics and counseled them about healthful diet and physical activity. They also used motivational interviewing techniques aimed at helping patients meet their goals. Patients who got all that attention lost .09 centimeters in waist circumference during the two-year period.
While there was an overall decrease in obesity, women in the study did not see any drop in waist circumference. The 241 patients who received usual care gained .02 centimeters in waist circumference. The results show how challenging it is to help patients lose weight once they have put it on, the study said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/03/12/prbf0312.htm.
