Physician counseling of overweight patients about preventive health behaviors.

Background: Numerous studies show that many primary care physicians (PCPs) do not discuss preventive health behaviors related to diet and exercise with their overweight patients.

Purpose: To investigate whether certain counseling approaches by PCPs in their clinical encounters with patients are associated with improvements in care and resource utilization.

Methods: A total of 2205 patients in a large HMO were surveyed, during November and December 2010, about their health behaviors and perceptions of their interactions with their PCPs.