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Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors

Background The incidence of obesity has been on the rise worldwide. In Pakistan alone, one in four adults is overweight/obese and thus at risk of developing a number of comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This research aimed to examine how doctors perceived and managed their o...

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Autores principales: Butt, Farooq, Farooq Butt, Ayesha, Alam, Fatima, Aslam, Nabiha, Abdul Moeed, Hussain, Butt, Furqan A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6488467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31058039
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4156
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author Butt, Farooq
Farooq Butt, Ayesha
Alam, Fatima
Aslam, Nabiha
Abdul Moeed, Hussain
Butt, Furqan A
author_facet Butt, Farooq
Farooq Butt, Ayesha
Alam, Fatima
Aslam, Nabiha
Abdul Moeed, Hussain
Butt, Furqan A
author_sort Butt, Farooq
collection PubMed
description Background The incidence of obesity has been on the rise worldwide. In Pakistan alone, one in four adults is overweight/obese and thus at risk of developing a number of comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This research aimed to examine how doctors perceived and managed their obese patients. Methods A standardized questionnaire was filled by 100 doctors working in Pakistan, either by hand or online. The study was conducted from November 2017 to January 2018. Results It was found that only 8% of doctors had completed a training course on obesity. Doctors discussed the links between obesity and diabetes (88%) most often whilst neglecting cancer (30%) and dementia (17%). Only 60% of doctors calculated body mass index (BMI) for adult obese patients, with general practitioners (GPs) being the most confident in discussing their weight issues (p=0.001). In terms of childhood obesity, 54% of doctors were confident in putting in place a weight management program. Doctors who checked their weight more than four times a year were found to calculate the BMI of children and adult patients more often (p=0.000 and p=0.044). Comparably, doctors of normal weight were more confident in managing the complications of adult obesity (p=0.015). Conclusion Training courses regarding obesity should be provided to doctors not only to increase their knowledge but also to increase their confidence levels in managing such patients. Further research needs to be carried out in order to understand the patients’ perception of obesity management.
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spelling pubmed-64884672019-05-05 Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors Butt, Farooq Farooq Butt, Ayesha Alam, Fatima Aslam, Nabiha Abdul Moeed, Hussain Butt, Furqan A Cureus Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism Background The incidence of obesity has been on the rise worldwide. In Pakistan alone, one in four adults is overweight/obese and thus at risk of developing a number of comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This research aimed to examine how doctors perceived and managed their obese patients. Methods A standardized questionnaire was filled by 100 doctors working in Pakistan, either by hand or online. The study was conducted from November 2017 to January 2018. Results It was found that only 8% of doctors had completed a training course on obesity. Doctors discussed the links between obesity and diabetes (88%) most often whilst neglecting cancer (30%) and dementia (17%). Only 60% of doctors calculated body mass index (BMI) for adult obese patients, with general practitioners (GPs) being the most confident in discussing their weight issues (p=0.001). In terms of childhood obesity, 54% of doctors were confident in putting in place a weight management program. Doctors who checked their weight more than four times a year were found to calculate the BMI of children and adult patients more often (p=0.000 and p=0.044). Comparably, doctors of normal weight were more confident in managing the complications of adult obesity (p=0.015). Conclusion Training courses regarding obesity should be provided to doctors not only to increase their knowledge but also to increase their confidence levels in managing such patients. Further research needs to be carried out in order to understand the patients’ perception of obesity management. Cureus 2019-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6488467/ /pubmed/31058039 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4156 Text en Copyright © 2019, Butt et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism
Butt, Farooq
Farooq Butt, Ayesha
Alam, Fatima
Aslam, Nabiha
Abdul Moeed, Hussain
Butt, Furqan A
Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title_full Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title_fullStr Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title_full_unstemmed Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title_short Perception and Management of Obesity Among Pakistani Doctors
title_sort perception and management of obesity among pakistani doctors
topic Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6488467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31058039
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4156
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