Hint: It's neither a pill nor a regimen.
According to a study published in the Patient Education and Counseling journal, physician support is the key to successful weight loss. The findings of the study revealed that the weight loss for the obese subjects were double on average for those who felt that they had the most helpful doctors compared to those who did not.
As reported by Eureka Alert, the study involved 347 obese people who took part in a two-year, U.S. government-funded weight loss program after which they were asked to fill our surveys about their relationships with their respective doctors.
For instance, the questionnaire asked "how often their providers explained things clearly, listened carefully and showed respect, as well as how helpful their physicians involvement was in the trial."
Sixty-three percent of the 347 patients who filled out surveys were female and about 40 percent were African-American. All of them were obese with body mass indices of 36.3 on average. Each of the subjects also had one of three cardiovascular disease risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Assistant Professor and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Primary Care Physician Wendy L. Bennett, MD, MPH, deemed high-quality, patient-doctor relationships that are marked by empathy, good communication, collaboration and trust are linked to better adherence to medication schedules, appointment keeping and other good outcomes, as evidenced by the research.
In order to see if this applies to weight loss efforts, Bennett and her colleagues analyzed information gathered by Johns Hopkins' Practice-based Opportunities for Weight Reduction (POWER) trial. As previously mentioned, this is a two-year and randomized study where obese patients were pushed to lose weight by health coaches all the while being overseen by physicians. After the trial, subjects were asked to rate their respective physicians through a survey.
After said survey, nearly all of the 347 subjects reported high-quality relationships with their physicians. However, the overall relationship had a low impact on weight loss. However, it can be noted that the patients who gave their physicians the highest ratings on "helpfulness" during the trial lost an average of 11 pounds, compared to those who rated their physicians the lowest "helpfulness" ratings, losing just over 5 pounds.
"This trial supports other evidence that providers are very important in their patients' weight loss efforts," Bennett noted as per Rapid News Network. She added that as many current weight loss programs are commercially run, patients often join these programs without their physician's knowledge. "Incorporating physicians into future programs might lead patients to more successful weight loss."