Low referral rate of overweight/obese hidradenitis suppurativa patients to weight management services - a missed opportunity?

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is associated with obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors. Referral of overweight/obese HS patients to weight management (WM) services is advised as this may help reduce HS disease severity and cardiovascular risk. A retrospective observational study of 50 HS patients attending a specialist HS clinic was conducted to assess general practitioner referral patterns of overweight/obese HS patients for WM. 42 patients (84%) were classified as overweight or obese. 0/6 overweight patients and 0/18 obese class 1 patients had been referred to WM prior to dermatology referral, while only 2/10 (20.0%) obese class 2 and 3/8 (37.5%) obese class 3 patients had been referred. The overall WM referral rate for overweight/obese patients was only 11.9% (5/42). The low referral rate suggests that further efforts are required to diagnose overweight/obesity in primary care, improve provision of WM services, and educate medical professionals that HS is a weight-related comorbidity.