Medically diagnosed overweight and weight loss in a US national survey

Background: Impact of physician diagnosis of overweight on successful weight loss in community-based patients is not known. We analyzed data from NHANES 1999-04 to assess if self-reported physician diagnosis of overweight was associated with attempted and successful weight loss in the preceding year. Methods: We determined if physician-rendered diagnosis of overweight was associated with attempted and successful weight loss in multivariable Poisson regression models that adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, education, income, insurance status, BMI, central obesity, self-rated health, number of office/emergency room visits, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Successful weight loss was defined as intentional loss of ≥ 5% body weight over the last year. Results: We included 8767 adults with BMI≥25kg/m² who met the criteria for this analysis. In multivariate models physician-rendered diagnosis of overweight was associated with attempted weight loss (PrR 1.39; 95% CI, 1.30-1.48) and successful weight loss (PrR 2.09; 95% CI, 1.72-2.55). Female gender, self-rated health, number of office/emergency room visits in preceding year, severity of overweight and presence of overweight-related co-morbidities were all significantly associated with physician diagnosis of overweight. Conclusion: In a nationally representative sample of community dwelling adults, self-reported physician diagnosis of overweight was associated with successful weight loss.