Acting sooner can help patients tackle obesity
Health care workers uniquely positioned to start conversations about obesity.
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Health care workers uniquely positioned to start conversations about obesity.
The AMA’s journal, the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), this week features an Insight+ article calling on health care professionals to place a more prominent focus on patient obesity. Unhealthy weight is second only to smoking as a contributor to the burden of disease in Australia. Obesity, a modifiable risk factor, is hence an important area for intervention and the reduced incidence of chronic disease.
Timely intervention is important as, left unchecked, for a patient who is overweight it takes on average six years for them to raise it with their health care professional of their own volition.
“Health care professionals are in a unique position to drastically improve our patients’ lives by providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to start living a healthy life and reduce their risk of serious illness.”