Factors Associated with the Accurate Diagnosis of Obesity.

Obesity is a growing epidemic, yet few patients with obesity receive a clinical diagnosis of obesity or appropriate counseling. We examined the socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with the accurate diagnosis of obesity during ambulatory care visits. We used data from the National Hospital Ambulatory and National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NHAMCS and NAMCS) to determine if a patient with obesity had been clinically diagnosed with obesity during the visit by either of the following: (1) a diagnosis listed in the patient's record; or (2) the provider's answer to the question "despite the diagnoses listed, does this patient have obesity?" We used multivariate models to examine the association between the accurate diagnosis of obesity and socioeconomic and demographic factors.