Stigmatization of patients, lack of training of doctors … While around ten million adult French people are overweight or obese, only 7.6 % of them consulted a doctor on this subject in the past year. Regional initiatives emerge to encourage them to find help.
- Almost one in two adults in France is overweight or obese, but only 7.6 % consult a doctor for this problem. Stigmatization, lack of information and lack of care coordination slows down care.
- Faced with this, the obesity GPS system, tested in three regions, offers a multidisciplinary approach to improve support for patients and doctors’ training.
- With encouraging results, it will be extended in 2025 to 18 departments, marking a turning point in the fight against obesity, which remains a major public health issue.
Each year, World Obesity Day of March 4 highlights a reality that should alarm us: in France and elsewhere in the world, almost one in two adults is in a situation of overweight or obesity, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly ten million major French people are now affected by pathology. However, medical consultations for a weight problem remain rare. Why such a big gap between the prevalence of this disease and its management?
A persistent medical and social denial
Despite the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease by WHO since 1997, only 7.6 % of the French concerned consulted a healthcare professional on this subject during the last twelve months, according to a press release of the medico-educational program GPS-Obesity. Several factors can explain this discrepancy.
First, the social stigma of obesity slows down many patients who, for fear of being judged, prevents themselves from soliciting help. This is all the more true for patients from a disadvantaged environment. Then, the lack of information, training and coordination of doctors on this pathology complicates access to an adapted care path. General practitioners can indeed “Having a feeling of helplessness and complexity in the face of the obesity of their patients”, to the point of “hesitant[r] often to evoke the disease “.
The obstacles do not stop there. Therapeutic education, essential for effective management but often confined to the hospital, is not systematically reimbursed by health insurance. A lack of financial support which often promotes late management, and therefore an increase in surgical interventions related to obesity, which have tripled in ten years.
Towards a better management of obesity
Faced with this scourge which is gaining ground, initiatives are being set up. For four years, three pilot regions (Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France and Center-Val de Loire) have notably have been testing an innovative device: obesity GPS. His goal? “Destigmatize, raise awareness” And propose a multidisciplinary and coordinated approach to take charge of obesity through the medical, social and societal prism. This route includes better training of health professionals and a valuation of their commitment via an increase in their packages.
The first results are encouraging: 430 patients have already benefited from this program and 180 professionals were trained, including 71 doctors. In 2025, the system will be extended to 18 departments. The objective remains the same: to support a growing number of patients while helping doctors better care for this complex disease. And showing that fighting obesity is not only a question of individual will, but indeed a public health issue which requires collective mobilization.
