[How do risk patients with overweight/obesity differ in their health knowledge and behaviour from patients with normal weight? A study in primary medical care].
OBJECTIVE
Individual health-related behaviour patterns and lifestyles are strongly associated with the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Overweight (BMI 25 to 30 kg/m(2)) and obese patients (BMI > or = 30 kg/m(2)) are at particular risk to develop these diseases. Therefore, we investigated whether these patients are more aware of health-related issues and problems than normal-weight patient with data from the HYDRA study on 45,000 subjects.


RESULTS
Health knowledge, problem awareness and health behaviour differed significantly among the examined patient groups (normal weight/overweight/obesity). The overweight and obese patients were aware of potential risk factors for various diseases (e. g. hypertension, diabetes); they recognized their own health-related problems and attended courses to change their problematic health behaviours more frequently. According to the patients' evaluations, however, these offers of courses are not very helpful.


CONCLUSIONS
Changing the contents and implementations of health courses seems necessary to decrease costs and improve quality in the health care system on a long-term basis.
Küpper
B
B
Institut für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Technische Universität Dresden. kuepper@psychomail.tu-dresden.de
Krause
P
P
Glaesmer
H
H
Wittchen
H-U
HU
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors