TY - JOUR
T1 - Primary Care Resident Training for Obesity, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Counseling
T2 - A Mixed-Methods Study
AU - Antognoli, Elizabeth L.
AU - Seeholzer, Eileen L.
AU - Gullett, Heidi
AU - Jackson, Brigid
AU - Smith, Samantha
AU - Flocke, Susan A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - National guidelines have been established to support the role of primary care physicians in addressing obesity. Preparing primary care residents to recognize and treat overweight/obesity has been identified as an essential component of postgraduate medical training that is currently lacking. This study aims to identify how primary care residency programs are preparing physicians to counsel about obesity, nutrition, and physical activity (ONPA) and to examine program members’ perspectives regarding the place of ONPA counseling in the curriculum, and its relevance in primary care training. Using mixed methods, we collected and analyzed data on 25 family medicine, internal medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology residency programs across Ohio. Programs averaged 2.8 hours of ONPA-related didactics per year. Ten programs (42%) taught techniques for health behavior counseling. Having any ONPA-related didactics was associated with greater counseling knowledge (p =.01) among residents but poorer attitudes (p <.001) and poorer perceived professional norms (p =.004) toward ONPA counseling. Findings from interview data highlighted similar perceived barriers to ONPA counseling across all three specialties but variation in perception of responsibility to provide ONPA counseling. While widespread expectations that primary care physicians counsel their overweight and obese patients prevail, few residency programs provide training to support such counseling.
AB - National guidelines have been established to support the role of primary care physicians in addressing obesity. Preparing primary care residents to recognize and treat overweight/obesity has been identified as an essential component of postgraduate medical training that is currently lacking. This study aims to identify how primary care residency programs are preparing physicians to counsel about obesity, nutrition, and physical activity (ONPA) and to examine program members’ perspectives regarding the place of ONPA counseling in the curriculum, and its relevance in primary care training. Using mixed methods, we collected and analyzed data on 25 family medicine, internal medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology residency programs across Ohio. Programs averaged 2.8 hours of ONPA-related didactics per year. Ten programs (42%) taught techniques for health behavior counseling. Having any ONPA-related didactics was associated with greater counseling knowledge (p =.01) among residents but poorer attitudes (p <.001) and poorer perceived professional norms (p =.004) toward ONPA counseling. Findings from interview data highlighted similar perceived barriers to ONPA counseling across all three specialties but variation in perception of responsibility to provide ONPA counseling. While widespread expectations that primary care physicians counsel their overweight and obese patients prevail, few residency programs provide training to support such counseling.
KW - health promotion
KW - medical education
KW - obesity
KW - primary care
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027557032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85027557032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1524839916658025
DO - 10.1177/1524839916658025
M3 - Article
C2 - 27402722
AN - SCOPUS:85027557032
SN - 1524-8399
VL - 18
SP - 672
EP - 680
JO - Health promotion practice
JF - Health promotion practice
IS - 5
ER -