Interventions for body weight reduction in obese patients during short consultations: an open-label randomized controlled trial in the Japanese primary care setting.

Background Family physicians should maintain regular contact with obese patients to ensure they effectively reduce their body weight. However, family physicians in Japan have on average only 6 (min) per consultation, and conventional interventions for body weight reduction require a longer consultation or additional manpower. A brief intervention within the limited consultation time available is therefore needed. Here we investigated the effectiveness of a brief weight reduction intervention for obese patients and the related factors for reducing body weight during routine consultations in the primary care setting.