People living with obesity not only confront social stigma and misunderstanding about their medical condition, but also end up receiving ineffective treatments because of misconceptions and presumptions among healthcare professionals.
Data from a new survey found that misunderstanding about the root causes of obesity leads many doctors to recommend treatments that do not help alleviate the condition for people living with this chronic disease. The survey, which included people living with obesity, healthcare providers, and even employers, found that 58 percent of healthcare providers believe that obesity is mainly due to lifestyle choices Data from the survey also showed that 43 percent of respondents consider that people living with obesity can reach a healthy weight if they “try hard enough”; 24 percent believed most patients with obesity are metabolically healthy even though they are carrying extra weight; and 67 percent held the view that people with obesity should be “required to demonstrate motivation to make lifestyle changes before medical treatment is offered.”
Health experts say that these misconceptions and biases are harmful, as they ignore the fact that obesity can be caused by a wide range of factors, including genetics and other factors over which patients have no control. They add that in order to obtain optimum outcome, it is crucial that doctors recommend treatment only after a case-by-case diagnosis of patients.
Results from the survey, which looked at prevailing barriers hindering the prescription of anti-obesity medications, was released by Eli Lilly and Company, the US-based multinational pharmaceutical firm. Even if we discount the objectivity of the survey released by a pharmaceutical manufacturer, the findings still remain quite revealing.
The survey showed that many healthcare professionals assume obesity is due to wrong choices made by patients and can be treated through lifestyle adjustments. They point out that there are many obese patients who are able to sustain large amounts of weight loss for many years. But studies show that most people who are able to lose weight and maintain this loss for extended periods, are usually people who had lower rates of adverse behavior changes to start with.
The finding that 43 percent of healthcare providers believe patients with obesity can generally achieve and maintain a healthy weight if they only tried enough is particularly surprising. The science has been clear for a long time that biology plays a critical role in someone’s ability to lose and maintain weight loss, and for many people struggling with overweight and obesity, lifestyle changes are often not enough.
Believing obesity to be due to lifestyle choices, is an overly simplistic view of a complex condition, the medical causes of which science has yet to fully comprehend. Latest studies identify obesity as a chronic disease that requires long-term management, and is likely due to genetic susceptibility and triggered by a wide range of environmental factors — the food supply, barriers to physical activity, stressors, and drugs and chemicals that cause weight gain.
Additionally, research shows a correlation between obesity and infection with certain viruses, specifically a few strains of adenovirus. Evolving understanding of the gut microbiome also reveals that it too plays a role in lean versus obese phenotypes, at least in mice. Science is still trying to decipher the role of the microbiome and weight in humans,Health experts say that it is high time that medical personnel everywhere start treating obesity like every other chronic disease, by acknowledging that there are biological factors working against most people as they try to lose weight, and until those biological factors are addressed, long-term weight loss is not likely to be successful.
Lifestyle changes are certainly foundational to work with weight management, and these changes are necessary to maintain weight loss over the long-term, but they are not the most common trigger for this disease. More intensive interventions are needed to treat obesity, including medications and surgery. Medications for weight loss and surgical options have been proven to provide, on average, more weight loss than lifestyle intervention. However, they also have side effects.