Weight management for patients in general practice tailored to health literacy

Abstract

Our aim was to develop and evaluate the feasibility and impact of a PHC approach to weight management tailored to the level of health literacy of obese patients. There were three key activities undertaken in this regard: 1) a literature review; 2) a pilot study; and 3) a weight management trial called “Better Management of Weight in General Practice” (BMWGP). In this report we describe the three activities and use the BMWGP baseline data to explore three issues. First, we look at the effectiveness of a screening tool to identify patients with low health literacy in general practice. Second, we describe the association between health literacy and a range of factors, behavioural intentions, lifestyle behaviours and quality of life to better understand the link between health literacy and health in a population of patients with obesity attending general practices. Third, we identify the groups most likely to experience weight stigma and how stigma relates to health literacy.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy