GPs letting down fat men by not sending them to ‘women’s’ weight loss classes, experts warn
Men account for just one in ten NHS-funded fatties at the likes of Weight Watchers and Slimming World
SEXIST GPs are letting down tubby men by failing to send them to weight loss classes, a study suggests.
Blokes currently account for just one in ten NHS-funded fatties at the likes of Weight Watchers and Slimming World.
But this jumped 400 per cent to four in ten after doctors were encouraged to discuss the option with fellas during appointments.
Study leader Professor Paul Aveyard, from the University of Oxford, warned medics need to address the “gender bias”.
He said GPs traditionally suggest men do “blokey things”, such as visit the gym, go for a run or play football, while suggesting weight management classes mostly to women.
But men benefit more than women from attending the group sessions and are more likely to be overweight or obese to begin with.
Latest figures from NHS Digital show 68 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women are too heavy.
And while women lose an average of 4.3 per cent of their body weight after three months’ attendance at Slimming World – men lose 5.7 per cent.
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Professor Appleyard said: “It appears GPs and nurses show a gender bias when it comes to men and weight management.
“GPs traditionally may have been more likely to encourage men to go to the gym, play football or take up running to boost their health – or they may have just offered them some simple dietary advice.
“We need to move away from these gender stereotypes and recognise that weight loss support groups work for men just as well as for women.
“Our study found that an NHS referral and a simple recommendation like ‘I think this could be good for you’ is enough to persuade many men to cast aside any reservations they might have and to give a weight management group a try.”
During the trial, GPs were told to spend 30 seconds discussing weight loss with all patients with a high body mass index – regardless of whether they were male or female.
Half of 1,882 chubsters were randomly referred to weight loss classes and half given weight management advice.
This led to an increase in men attending weight management classes.
Martin Tod, from the Men’s Health Forum, said: “What this research shows is that it’s not just men who need to change their attitudes about their weight – health professionals do too.
“Men who might benefit from weight management services are missing out because they’re not being told about them.
“Yet when they are told about them, many men do use them and, despite what might be expected, many men really benefit from them.”
Paul Sharpe, from Slimming World, said: “We welcome the results of this study.
“This is a particularly important issue because not only are men more likely to be overweight than women, they’re also less likely to talk about it and less likely to take action to manage their weight.
“Once they set their mind to it though, men do seem to be good at slimming down.
“There are now 60,000 men attending Slimming World and the vast majority of our groups now have a few men in them.
“We are starting to see an improvement in gender balance in some referral schemes, but certainly more needs to be done.”
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