Obesity as a disease involving more patients: ECO 2019

I am Jason Halford. I am treasurer of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. And I am also a professor at the University of Liverpool.

How would you summarize the congress?

What really struck me was how many people came so early Sunday morning and how much they were really involved in a lot of sessions, including the training sessions we organized for dietitians and the nurses in the morning. So there are a lot of ongoing educational activities, as well as the exchange of the best high level scientific knowledge that we have at the international level on obesity.

Is the message sent to health professionals about the need to fight obesity in primary care and beyond?

I think one of the difficulties is to have obesity recognized as an illness.

But I think it's a battle we win. But having obesity recognized as a disease does not necessarily mean that people treat it as an illness. As a result, health professionals may not feel that patients are motivated, or not feel that they have effective treatments. Patients can still take charge themselves of managing their own weight control problem and not necessarily feel that they can contact a health professional or that the latter is able to help him or her in any way.

How does the therapeutic approach differ in calling obesity a disease?

If you recognize that obesity is an illness and you recognize that there are biological and environmental determinants that are beyond the control of the individual, then it means that you probably recognize these, you you attack these things, as well as the behavior of the individual within this context.

So, this is not to blame the individual. Individual behavior is important in obesity. It's understanding some of the biological and environmental fundamentals of that, while recognizing that it's not all your fault. We can do certain things and work with you to help you manage your weight for life.

In the UK, ECO media coverage has highlighted the risks badociated with BMI. Does the message reach the wider population?

I think yes, people recognize that obesity is a health risk and that the number of noncommunicable diseases with which it is badociated is not as well known because people are aware of the link with diabetes, maybe they know a little about the link with cardiovascular disease. health. They will know less about the history of cancer, and the history of cancer at this congress has been very important up until now. We have attended many interesting presentations on this subject. The other thing that people are not aware of is mental health issues related to obesity and obesity, as well as the fight against obesity and stigma. I think it went well at this congress as well.

That said, there is still a lot of work to be done. The options for obese people are still very limited, access to treatment is still very limited. And I do not think people have really agreed that if you want to act on all noncommunicable diseases, it has to involve obesity and obesity has to to be addressed directly.

You have participated in these events for many years. What has changed over time?

I think what has changed over time: two things have changed over time. We are now working in a truly interdisciplinary way. This is not a lot of simple silos. There were a lot of simple silos. Thus, nutritionists would talk to nutritionists, from psychologists to psychologists, from clinicians to clinicians. We are talking to each other now.

The other important thing is that we discuss with patients. And you will notice that the Patient Council has become a new organization that we support. But the patients also participated in congress planning, co-presiding and managing their own congress events. And I think having this dialogue with obese people has enlightened a lot of what we do. I think we were afraid to talk to patients or to have patients here. But now, it is acceptable. It's normal. Patients tell us about how we talk about obesity and how we talk about it and they educate us, and that's a good thing.