Patient-health care professional gender or race/ethnicity concordance and its association with weight-related advice in the United States

• Only about 50% of US patients reported receiving some advice on healthy eating and exercise from HCPs, although over two-third of American adults are overweight or obese.
• Patients with female HCPs were more likely to receive weight related advice than patients with male HCPs.
• Gender or ethnicity/race concordance between patient and HCP did not affect likelihood of weight-related advice.
• Patients’ likelihood to receive the advice differed by their own and their HCP’s race/ethnicity. Patients were less likely to receive advice from white HCPs and from HCPs of other race/ethnicity.

ObjectiveExamine association between adult patients’ and health care providers’ (HCPs) gender or race/ethnicity concordance and patients’ reported receiving weight-related advice from HCP’s in USA.MethodsUsing Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2004–2007 data, studied prevalence of weight-related advice (on exercise and diet) given to patients and its association with patients/HCPs concordance in gender (n = 9,686) and race/ethnicity (n = 8,825).ResultsOverall, 46% of patients received HCP advice on diet and 49% on exercise. Overweight females seeing female HCPs were more likely to receive exercise advice than those seeing male HCPs (OR = 1.44 [95% CI: 1.10–1.89]). Race/ethnicity concordance was associated with lower odds of advice-receiving in certain populations (OR = 0.80 [0.67–0.97] for exercise and OR = 0.42 [0.19–0.91] for diet among white patients, OR = 0.47 [0.23–0.98] for exercise among Hispanic overweight patients).ConclusionsPatient/HCP gender or race/ethnicity concordance was not positively associated with HCPs providing weight-related advice. Patients with female HCPs or with racial/ethnic discordant HCPs (especially black or Asian HCPs) were more likely to receive advice.Practice implicationsHealth care providers need be empowered, particularly white and male HCPs, to improve delivery of weight-related advice. It may reflect better of receiving weight-related advice based on patients’ recall.