Treating patients with obesity can be difficult for all medical specialists, including orthopedic and spine surgeons.
Physicians have to face both safety-of-care and ethical dilemmas when deciding how to proceed.
About 85% of physicians believe obesity should be treated as both a disease and a behavioral health issue, according to Medscape's 2024 "Hot Topics in the Medical Profession Report," published Sept. 17.
Here are six additional physician observations to know concerning obesity in medicine:
1. About 10% of physicians believe obesity is primarily a medical disease, while an additional 5% believe it is merely a behavioral health issue.
2. The large majority of physicians (83%) believe that the cost of obesity medications is creating an equal-access problem.
3. The majority of physicians (73%) also agree that patients considered high-risk should get better access to weight loss medications.
4. About 73% of physicians believe that private payers should cover obesity medications, while an additional 66% believe that Medicare should cover obesity medications.
5. A large majority of physicians, 80%, believe that more studies need to be done on the risk obesity medications could pose to adolescents.
6. Only 2% of physicians believe that the public is very well informed about weight loss medications. About 16% believe that the public is not informed at all, while an additional 45% believe the public is not very informed.