When a person with diabetes, high blood pressure, or osteoarthritis goes to their primary care clinic, they expect treatment that’s grounded in modern medical evidence.

That might mean nutrition and exercise recommendations, prescriptions for medications, regular measurement of their progress and referrals for visits to specialists or even surgery.

But if they have obesity, they may not get the same level of evidence-based care for that chronic condition, recent studies have shown.

Why not? Like obesity itself, the answer is complicated, say Michigan Medicine primary care physicians with advanced training in obesity medicine.

The reasons include health insurance rules that exclude obesity medications and behavioral therapy, lack of training among primary care clinicians on best practices for treating obesity such as prescribing newer medications, and societal stigma against people with obesity.

And unlike those other chronic health conditions, few outside forces have driven primary care clinics to focus on providing high-quality, personalized obesity care for all.

Source: Read Full Article