Medical or Common Knowledge? Knowledge of Medical Professionals on Obesity Diagnosis Criteria and Treatment

INTRODUCTION: Proper diagnosis of obesity, its severity, and complications and their effective treatment requires an interdisciplinary healthcare approach. Nevertheless, obesity remains under-identified and undertreated. Academic knowledge concerning obesity pathology, diagnosis, and treatment is advancing. It is not clear whether this translates into clinical practice. The goal of the study was to assess the knowledge of healthcare professionals (HCPs) on obesity and particularly on the criteria for diagnosis as well as for conservative and surgical treatment. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among active HCPs (N = 184), including physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, and paramedics who had contact with adult patients with obesity. The proprietary research survey, implemented in an online tool, was used to assess knowledge on the diagnosis and treatment of obesity and self-assessment of that knowledge. The analysis was limited to the following: body mass index (BMI) definition, BMI values, visceral obesity definition, bariatric surgery indications, choice of treatment method, role of diet and physical activity, knowledge of obesity pharmacotherapy, length of obesity pharmacotherapy, financing of bariatric procedures, and goals of bariatric treatment. The correct answers were determined according to the Polish guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity. RESULTS: Half of the respondents (52.2%) were doctors, 20.7% were nurses and midwives, 19.0% were physiotherapists, and 8.2% were other medical professionals. Among questions related to knowledge on obesity, 67.1% of respondents provided correct answers, with respondents answering questions concerning obesity diagnosis correctly more frequently (70.1%) than those concerning methods of treatment (64.6%). The largest number of correct answers was related to the definition of BMI and normal BMI values. The smallest number of correct answers pertained to the diagnostic criteria for visceral obesity and pharmacological treatment of obesity. There was no statistically significant impact of a responder's knowledge levels on the obesity of different HCPs. Workplace and participation in training sessions were found to have the largest impact on the level of knowledge on obesity. HCPs' own assessment of their knowledge on obesity was negatively correlated with their actual level of knowledge. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of overweight and obesity implies that essentially every HCP has daily contact with patients with excessive body weight. Knowledge of BMI values cannot be considered as exclusively medical knowledge: these values were established years ago and are present in widely available sources. Our research showed that 32.9% of HCPs did not have sufficient knowledge about how to diagnose and treat obesity.