Original paper
Assessment of obese/overweight patients’ readiness to lose weight on an outpatient and hospitalized basis

Introduction : Overweight and obesity is a global epidemic. The problem of obesity concerns people of all age groups, regardless of gender and race. The framework of treatment of overweight and obesity includes changing life style, dietetic attitude and proper drug treatment. It seems to be very important to consider psychological causes of obesity, especially the level of motivation, which can be a predictor of the effectiveness of an obesity treatment.

Aim: The aim of the study was to estimate patients’ subjective motivation/readiness to lose weight.

Material and methods : A questionnaire survey was carried out between July and September 2011 among 88 selected patients. The criteria to enter were patients’ overweight or obesity. The participants were patients of the Department and Outpatient Clinic of Internal Diseases, Metabolic Disorders, and Hypertension in the city of Poznan. The group consisted of 54 women and 34 men; 15.9% of them were overweight and 84.1% obese.

Results: On the basis of the survey, 61.4% of patients were classified in the group of people with moderate motivation, 27.2% in the group of poorly motivated, and only 11.4% in the group of highly motivated subjects. Among men there was a higher percentage of subjects with low motivation (35.2%) than among women (22.2%). While analysing the group of patients it should be noted that younger subjects were more frequently less motivated (45.0%) than older subjects (18.2%). Among patients who made unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, 36.0% had a low level of readiness to make further attempts. The percentage of people with a low level of motivation in the group which was effective in the past was low (12.5%). Patients with a strong motivation were in the minority among patients with high blood pressure (10.0%). During the study we found that people with a higher level of education had lower motivation (72.2%) than those with a lower level of education (8.3%, 22.2%). Among those who assess their knowledge on nutrition as high there were only 17.6% of people with high motivation to lose weight and 41.2% of poorly motivated individuals.

Conclusions: The largest group of respondents was classified in the medium level of readiness to attempt weight loss category. Women were significantly more motivated to lose weight than men. Older people were more motivated to change their diet then younger ones. Subjects making earlier unsuccessful attempts to lose weight were more likely to declare a low degree of readiness to make further attempts. The presence of hypertension affects readiness to lose weight negatively. Subjects with the highest level of proper nutrition knowledge and the highest education level also have the poorest motivation to attempt to lose weight. Further research is needed to reveal factors which have a major impact on motivation to attempt to lose weight.