Medicine Residents are Unprepared to Effectively Treat Patients with Obesity: Results from a U.S. Internal Medicine Residency Survey

BACKGROUND: In an obesity epidemic, physicians are unprepared to treat patients with obesity. The objective of this study was to understand how obesity is currently addressed in United States (U.S.) Internal Medicine (IM) residency programs and benchmark the degree to which curricula incorporate topics pertaining to the recently developed Obesity Medicine Education Collaborative (OMEC) competencies. METHODS: Invitations to complete an online survey were sent via postal mail to U.S IM residency programs in 2018. Descriptive analyzes were performed. RESULTS: Directors/associate directors from 81 IM residencies completed the online survey out of 501 programs (16.2%). Although obesity was an intentional educational objective for most programs (66.7%), only 2.5% of respondents believed their residents are “very prepared” to manage obesity. Formal rotation opportunities in obesity are limited, and at best, only one-third (34.6%) of programs reported any one of the core obesity competencies are covered to “a great extent.” Many programs reported psychosocial components of obesity (40.7%), weight stigma (44.4%), etiological aspects of obesity (64.2%) and pharmacological treatment of obesity (43.2%) were covered to “very little extent” or “not at all.” Lack of room in the curriculum and lack of faculty expertise are the greatest barriers to integrating obesity education; only 39.5% of residency programs have discussed incorporating or expanding formal obesity education. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found the current obesity curricula within U.S. IM residency programs do not adequately cover important aspects that address the growing obesity epidemic, suggesting that obesity education is not enough of a priority for IM residency programs to formalize and implement within their curricula.