The way health professionals present weight loss treatments and programs affects an obese person’s ability to lose weight.
- Presenting obesity treatment as a positive opportunity is associated with greater weight loss.
- When doctors approached the subject of excess weight in an optimistic tone, it promoted participation in the 12-week weight loss program among obese patients.
- No difference was found in weight change between the “bad news” approach, emphasizing the “problem” of obesity, and the “neutral” approach, which has no features positive or negative.
International recommendations recommend that general practitioners detect overweight and obesity and offer treatment against this chronic nutritional disease. In previous surveys, patients have indicated that the words and tone used by practitioners are important to them and can motivate or demotivate them to lose weight. However, there is little data on how health professionals can address weight issues and provide treatment in a way that is well received and effective.
Obesity: three approaches to talking about treatments have been identified
This is why researchers from the University of Oxford (England) carried out a study, the results of which were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. For the purposes of the work, they examined recorded conversations between 246 patients suffering from obesity and 87 doctors. These discussions focused on a free 12-week behavioral intervention for weight loss. “As the data is audio only, body language and non-verbal cues could not be assessed.” The team’s goal? Examine the relationship between language used during consultation and patient behavior, including program participation and weight loss outcomes.
Scientists have identified three interactional approaches. In the first, which is called the “good news approach”, the practitioner uses positive language and an optimistic tone about the benefits of weight loss and presents the weight loss program as an “opportunity”. “, with very little mention of obesity, body mass index or weight as a problem. The second approach, which is that of “bad news”, emphasizes the “problem” of obesity with a pessimistic tone. The “neutral” approach, which was the most common, does not present any positive or negative characteristics.
Hearing positive terms motivated obese adults to lose weight
The results showed that obese adults who received advice under the good news approach had the greatest weight loss observed after 12 months, averaging about 4.8 kg, compared to 2 .7 kg in the group having been informed in a pessimistic tone and 1.2 kg in the group having benefited from the “neutral” approach. According to the authors, the greater weight loss in the “good news approach” group appears to be due to greater participation in the 12-week weight loss program, since 87% of participants in this group followed the program, compared to less than half of the volunteers in the other two groups.
