Referral letters to an obesity unit - relationship between doctor and patient information

The contents of 200 letters of referrals from physicians to a clinical obes ity unit were compared with patient-reported data and analysed for concorda nt and discordant information. For major comorbidities (diabetes, hypertens ion, joint problems) concordant information was found in about 80%, whereas discordant information was found in 46% for smoking, and 66% for medicatio n. Forty-five percent of psychological problems, described by patients, wer e not identified by the referring physician. The role of the referral lette r as a tool in medical communication has received little attention and comp arative data are generally lacking, but our data suggests that there is roo m for considerable improvement of the quality of the referral letter.