Society of Behavioral Medicine Call to Action: Include obesity/overweight management education in health professional curricula and provide coverage for behavior-based treatments of obesity/overweight most commonly provided by psychologists, dieticians, counselors, and other health care professionals and include such providers on all multidisciplinary teams treating patients who have overweight or obesity

Abstract

Obesity is a serious chronic disease whose prevalence has grown to epidemic proportions over the past five decades and is a major contributor to the global burden of most common cancers, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, liver disease, and sleep apnea. Primary care clinicians, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, are often the first health care professionals to identify obesity or overweight during routine long-term care and have the opportunity to intervene to prevent and treat disease. However, they often lack the training and skills needed to deliver scientifically validated, behavior-based treatments. These gaps must be addressed in order to treat the obesity epidemic. The Society of Behavioral Medicine strongly urges health professional educators and accrediting agencies to include obesity and overweight management education for primary care clinicians. Additionally, we support promoting referrals and reimbursement for psychologists, dieticians, and other health care professionals as critical members of the care team and improving reimbursement levels for behavioral obesity and overweight management treatment.

Knowledge of liver fibrosis stage among adults with NAFLD/NASH improves adherence to lifestyle changes

“…The involvement of nurses but also of other healthcare staff in patient treatment education 26,27 can be particularly relevant for patients with obesity, and also for women with NAFLD/NASH, as in our study, both of these groups were at higher risk of not adhering to lifestyle changes. The lower adherence to lifestyle change adjustments in women in our study is not consistent with a previous systematic review targeting people with obesity regardless of NAFLD/NASH comorbidities, 28 which found that men were at higher risk of non‐adherence to such programmes.…”

An analysis of weight loss efforts and expectations in a Canadian Cohort: A retrospective medical chart review

“…[37][38][39][40] Alternatively, this may reflect the lack of effective obesity management solutions available that could help patients attain their weight loss goals causing patients to turn to unproven therapies with large weight loss claims. Further, the low reported use of dietitians may indicate the lack of availability of dieticians or inadequate training for dieticians 41 and medical professionals 42,43 in Canada for treating obesity.…”

Psychotherapeutic Interventions to Improve Psychological Adjustment in Type 1 Diabetes: A Systematic Review

“…But, whether therapists (nonpsychology professionals) have competencies to deliver a specific psychological training is not clear, and has been highlighted as a limitation by a recent review [22]. Recent studies on chronic diseases indicate that physicians, nurses and other health professionals often lack the training and skills that psychologists have, to deliver behavior-based treatments, and also highlight that interprofessional teams yield the most positive outcomes [36][37][38]. However, there are few randomized controlled studies in which appropriately qualified psychologists carry out these interventions.…”