Browsing by Subject "Obesity"

Obesity is a growing health challenge in Finland. Despite the fact, that obesity is recognized as a chronic disease, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. In the past few years, two new anti-obesity drugs have entered the market to support the lifestyle changes Anti-obesity medication would be a natural option to support lifestyle changes, but physicians have not widely adopted the medication in their treatment patterns. The aim of this study was to understand, what are the abilities of primary care physician (PCP) to treat obesity, considering their knowledge, resources and, local care pathways. In addition, the study sought to determine the most important factors, that are involved in the initiation of anti-obesity medication. The study was conducted as a semi-structured thematic interview. A total of nine PCPs from all over Finland were interviewed for the study. Of these, three worked on the private sector and six on the public sector. The interviews were conducted during October-November 2020. The framework of the interviews was built based on the previous studies and information within a pharmaceutical company specializing in the treatment of obesity. The content was analysed with inductive content analysis. PCPs interested in the treatment of obesity raised the topic of weight quite easily in various situations and some of them mentioned that they even find it easy to bring up the subject. However, the subject is mainly brought up when the patient already has some weight-related comorbidities. Preventively, weight is less often talked about, especially because of a lack of human and time resources. Currently the most comprehensive care pathways and interdisciplinary teams are in occupational healthcare. In occupational healthcare, resources are perceived as adequate and the interdisciplinary teams works well. In most healthcare centers, a separate care pathway for the treatment of obesity had not been built. In general, knowledge of the obesity treatment was considered adequate, but education on the biological basis of obesity is needed. Most of the PCPs knew about the new anti-obesity drugs and had positive attitude towards them, but they did not prescribe the drugs themselves. The most significant barrier to prescribe the anti-obesity drugs, was the price of the products and the lack of reimbursement. In addition, experience with anti-obesity drugs is limited and the need for education is high. Currently, occupational health physicians have better abilities to treat obesity in terms of care pathways, interdisciplinary teams and, resources than PCPs in public healthcare. The conditions are also better for the implementation of pharmacotherapy as resources and care pathways enables proper lifestyle guidance alongside pharmacotherapy. Prior to reimbursement, pharmacotherapy may not be a realistic option in the public sector, and the conditions for proper lifestyle guidance alongside pharmacotherapy are not sufficient in all locations.

Objective Obesity is a major health concern, however, the role of olfaction on automatic action tendencies (AATs) and eating behaviour is understudied. The current study investigated AATs, that is approaching problematic stimuli rather compulsively, towards food and their relation to trait food cravings. Methods 65 participants (33 females, mean age 28.5 years, mean BMI 28.63 kg/m2) completed a modified Approach- Avoidance Task towards ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ food pictures with simultaneous odour stimulation (orange, chocolate). It was investigated whether odour stimulation influences AATs in normal weight and obese participants. Possible group differences were analysed with a repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance. Further, the relation of AATs and questionnaire measures for eating behaviour and impulsivity were investigated with correlation analyses, particularly focusing on trait food and chocolate cravings. Results Contrary to hypotheses, olfactory stimulation did not influence AATs towards food pictures in normal weight and obese participants. Further, no differences in AATs were found in different BMI groups. Rather unexpectedly, negative correlations were found between AATs and trait food cravings; reporting more cravings associated with avoiding food pictures, whereas reporting less cravings associated with approach tendencies – especially among overweight individuals. Conclusions The AAT phenomena towards food pictures was not replicated, contradicting prior studies. The current results imply that perceivable olfactory stimulation does not seem to play a part in implicit tendencies. The negative association of AATs and cravings could reflect socially desirable behaviour. Replication studies in multimodal research settings are needed to determine the exact role of olfaction on implicit tendencies.