Barriers to counseling patients with obesity: a study of Texas community pharmacists.

Objective: To assess barriers to the counseling of obese patients and identify pharmacists' characteristics associated with these barriers.

Design: Cross-sectional mail survey.

Setting: Texas.

Participants: 139 community pharmacists.

Intervention: Self-administered questionnaire.

Main Outcome Measures: Respondents' perceived barriers to pharmacists' counseling of obese patients.

Results: The top three barriers to counseling included lack of time (76.8%), lack of patient demand or expectations (55.8%), and lack of reimbursement/compensation (49.3%). Pharmacists indicated that they rarely to sometimes counseled obese patients and were somewhat comfortable with counseling about obesity management. They perceived obesity management strategies to be somewhat effective in weight loss, but were neutral regarding their confidence in achieving positive outcomes with counseling. Pharmacists who were more experienced were more likely to indicate that obesity is controllable without medications. Those who considered obesity controllable without medications were significantly more likely to view the various obesity management strategies as less effective, compared with those who did not share this belief. Pharmacists who viewed lack of privacy as a barrier were significantly less confident in achieving positive outcomes as a result of counseling. Creating awareness among patients about pharmacists' ability to counsel was perceived as most important in overcoming barriers.

Conclusion: Pharmacists identified several barriers to counseling of obese patients. Pharmacists' demographics and beliefs about obesity were significantly associated with their perceived barriers.