Could your weight affect how you interact with your doctor?

According to new research, overweight people are more likely to disagree with their doctors on weight loss and lifestyle recommendations. The quality of information, mutual comprehension, and agreement between doctors and patients affect a patient's health status, compliance, satisfaction, and confidence towards his or her doctor. This study aimed to analyze whether the interaction between patients and their doctors, as measured by their disagreement on information and advice given during the consultation, varied according to the patient's body mass index. Agreement between patients and doctors was weak or moderate for most of the questions, including questions about actions, information, advice, and patient's health status discussed during the doctor's appointment. Compared to patients with a "normal" BMI, overweight patients were more likely to disagree with their doctors regarding advice given on weight loss, advice given on doing more physical activity, and advice about nutrition.