Obese patients’ dissatisfaction with weight, body image and clinicians’ interaction at a district hospital; Gauteng

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Obese patients’ dissatisfaction with weight, body image and clinicians’ interaction at a district hospital; Gauteng
 
Creator Kanozire, Buhendwa Pretorius, Deidré
 
Subject Family medicine; general practice; primary care; primary health care obese patient; weight; body image; dissatisfaction; clinicians; obesity management.
Description Background: Obesity in South Africa has created a public health crisis that warrants a multilevel intervention. However, patients’ perceptions and clinicians’ challenges hinder the management of obesity in primary care.Aim: The study aimed to assess obese patients’ dissatisfaction with weight and body image and their perspectives on interaction with clinicians regarding obesity management in a primary care setting.Setting: Outpatient department of Dr Yusuf Dadoo District Hospital.Methods: Cross-sectional study of 213 adult obese patients. A semi-structured questionnaire, a body image assessment tool and patients’ medical records were used for data collection.Results: The study found that, contrary to popular belief, obese patients were dissatisfied with their weight (78.9%) and body image (95.3%). Many felt comfortable while discussing weight reduction with clinicians, although 37.1% reported never engaging with a doctor and 62.9% never interacted with a nurse on the subject. Only 6% reported receiving adequate information on weight reduction measures and 19.7% were followed-up. Clinicians’ advice was mainly associated with patients’ high body mass index and waist circumference. Doctors were less likely to recommend weight reduction to employed obese women, while nurses were more likely to engage Zulu-speaking patients. Patients were more likely to be followed up if they were young and excessively obese.Conclusion: The study found that most obese patients were dissatisfied with their weight and body image and perceived their interaction with clinicians regarding obesity management as inadequate.Contribution: The study provides an angle of view of challenges in obesity management from patients’ perspectives.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2023-07-07
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — original research; Cross sectional study; quantitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.3872
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 9 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3872/6373 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3872/6374 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3872/6375 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3872/6376
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Gauteng; West Rand District August 2020-October 2020 Age; Gender; Language; Marital status; education; Employment status; BMI; Waist circumference; comorbidity
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Buhendwa Kanozire, Deidré Pretorius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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