Abstract
Background & Objectives:Primary health care (PHC) physicians are foremost to confront childhood and adolescent obesity. Our objective was to evaluate PHC Physicians perspectives for managing overweight/obesity in children and adolescents.Methods:PHC services from eight public hospitals in Riyadh participated. A self-administered tool maintaining anonymity evaluated facilitators and barriers for managing overweight/obese children and adolescent patients. Physicians who ‘always’ recommended weight management for an overweight / obese patient during past year, by involving patient, parents, and others were classified as having positive and appropriate practice.Results:Of the 58 respondents, 51.7% had appropriate practices. Lack of patient motivation (82.2%), and parental involvement (70.7%) were the major barriers. Physicians with appropriate practices differed in perspectives from those with less appropriate practices by attending continued education forums (p<0.026), referring patients to sub-specialty (p< 0.041), clinical knowledge (p<0.039), convinced on interventions (p<0.017), low concern for precipitating eating disorders (p<0.019), comfortable in examining obese patients (p<0.020), and considered patient’s readiness for weight change (p< 0.007).Conclusion:Efforts are needed to equip PHC physicians in managing overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents.
Highlights
Medical interventions combined with behavioral and environmental modifications address obesity and overweight status in children and adolescent.[1]Correspondence: December 14, 2016 January 24, 2017 January 26, 2017United States data (2012) report obesity prevalence of 18% in 6-11 and 21% in 12-19 years of age groups.[2]
Obesity prevalence is high across all age groups in Arab countries, attributed to urbanization, physical inactivity, prolonged sitting periods, fast food marketing, and other environmental factors.[3,4]
Primary health care (PHC) services of eight large hospitals working under health department of Riyadh, participated to provide PHC physicians’ perspectives on management of childhood/adolescent obesity
Summary
Medical interventions combined with behavioral and environmental modifications address obesity and overweight status in children and adolescent.[1]. Obese children tend to become obese adults.[8] Guidelines recommend Primary health care (PHC) physicians to identify obesity, medical risks, and unhealthy habits for eating and physical activity. Primary health care (PHC) physicians are foremost to confront childhood and adolescent obesity.Our objective was to evaluate PHC Physicians perspectives for managing overweight/ obesity in children and adolescents. A self-administered tool maintaining anonymity evaluated facilitators and barriers for managing overweight/obese children and adolescent patients. Physicians who ‘always’ recommended weight management for an overweight / obese patient during past year, by involving patient, parents, and others were classified as having positive and appropriate practice. Conclusion: Efforts are needed to equip PHC physicians in managing overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents
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