Abstracts / Posters
Does obesity, or simply its complications influence attendance patterns in primary care?
Accepted for poster presentation, Diabetes UK 2003
The Counterweight Project Team
Introduction: Obesity accounts for a large proportion of time spent with patients by general practitioners and practice nurses. Is weight management the focus for prevention of diabetes and other conditions, or is this time spent addressing previously developed co-morbidities?
Methods: Medical records were reviewed for 300 randomly selected normal weight patients (BMI > 18.5 – 25) from 11 UK practices and compared with age and sex matched obese counterparts from the same practices (n = 277) in the Counterweight Programme (UK 7-centre, 80-practice obesity project).
Results: A greater proportion of obese patients attend their GP at least once in 18 months compared to lean controls (91%: 84%; p < 0.05). A similar result was found for visits to the PN (39%:29%; p<0.05). Analysis controlling for co-morbidity prevalence removes this difference.
Conclusion: Obesity per se has no effect on attendance patterns in primary care, appointments appearing to be influenced by the presence of co-morbidities. Obesity as a chronic condition is not itself targeted despite recent guidelines suggesting this as an important health strategy for the UK.