Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 26, Issue 4, July 1997, Pages 542-549
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Physician Attitudes toward Managing Obesity: Differences among Six Specialty Groups,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1997.0171Get rights and content

Abstract

Background.The Healthy People 2000 report recommended that physicians more actively address obesity, but little is known about current attitudes and practices of physicians, particularly across specialty areas relevant to obesity as a medical risk factor.

Methods.A mail survey of 1,222 physicians from six specialties (family practice, internal medicine, gynecology, endocrinology, cardiology, and orthopedics) investigated beliefs, attitudes, and practices regarding obesity in relation to medical risk, management, and interest in training and other resources.

Results.Specialty groups shared high concern for the health risks of moderate and morbid obesity, but distinct attitudes and patterns of practice emerged. For example, family practitioners, internists, and endocrinologists reported treating obesity themselves in about 50% of obese patients, which correlated with reported use of more active treatment approaches (r= 0.62,P< 0.0001). Other groups reported intervening with 5 to 29% of patients, but expressed greater interest in making referrals. Physicians reporting “any specialty training related to . . . obesity” ranged from 4.5% of family practitioners to 36.4% of endocrinologists.

Conclusions.Physicians express high concern with management of obesity but variable interest in assuming this role themselves. Mild obesity may be particularly undertreated. Research is critically needed to assess effective physician roles in weight management and to support the development of physician guidelines.

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    Portions of these data have been presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity meeting, Hampton, Virginia, March 1992; at the Society of Behavioral Medicine meeting, New York, New York, March 1992; and at the International Congress of Health Psychology, Tokyo, Japan, July 1993. This research was funded by a grant from Sandoz Nutrition, initiated by the first author while she was on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Department of Medicine.

    ☆☆

    J, O, Cavenar, editor

    2

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