Perception of “Healthy” Body Weight by Patients With Diabetes

Abstract

Although weight management is important to diabetes treatment (1–3), obesity remains common among adults with diabetes (4). This may reflect the difficulty of promoting weight loss (5) or inattention to obesity management during routine clinical practice (6). Since self-management is a major tenet of diabetes care (4), patient understanding of weight-related health risk may be an important step toward setting healthy lifestyle goals and effective weight management. We sought to understand how well patients with diabetes who receive care in primary care practices could identify healthy body weight. During a diabetes education initiative, a survey was mailed to 2,607 patients with diabetes from three university-based general medicine practices in a single urban area. It included questions on knowledge (diabetes knowledge test, general knowledge subscale [7]) and behaviors related to diabetes. Patients were also asked to report their current height and weight, and “the healthiest weight for your height.” To ensure privacy, patients with diabetes were identified anonymously from the practices’ electronic medical records. Participant responses were anonymous; to avoid undue burden on nonresponders uninterested in participating, the University’s Institutional Review Board precluded multiple mailings. Each participant’s current BMI (weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters [kg/m2]) was calculated. Likewise, perceived healthiest BMI was calculated from reported current height and “healthiest” weight. If the current BMI was higher …