Do doctors warn the obese they re more than pleasingly plump?

A story appearing in an online edition the Wall Street Journal on Monday suggests that some doctors aren t warning obese and overweight patients about the dangers of their excess size. Reporting on a study of 7,790 people between the ages of 20 and 64, the Journal s Katherine Hobson points out that 37 percent of people found to be overweight based on body mass index (BMI) and 17 percent of those judged clinically obese claimed that they hadn t known they fell into these categories and weren t informed of this by their doctors, either.

The study was based on self-reporting and thus faces the problems of reliability of patients recollections, some of which are either intentionally or unconsciously self-serving. Such problems are characteristic of self-reported survey-based research. Nevertheless, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross says that it provides an important reminder to doctors. Much like a physician who fails to advise a smoking patient to quit, or to warn them about the associated risks, would be guilty of malpractice, so, too, a doctor examining an obese patient must in a non-judgmental way warn them about the risks. To hear this from a doctor can be very powerful. While always being sensitive, doctors should not treat weight-challenged patients with kid gloves.