University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
UMMS Affiliation
Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
Publication Date
2021-06-01
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Health Services Administration | Health Services Research | Medical Education | Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases | Preventive Medicine
Abstract
Physicians can play a vital role in counseling patients on overweight and obesity. This secondary analysis examined whether experiences in patient care specific to weight management before starting medical school were associated with students' intentions and confidence to provide weight management counseling (WMC) to patients who have overweight or obesity, and perceived impact as future physicians on patients' motivation to manage weight. First-year medical students (n = 1305) in the entering class of 2020 at eight medical schools nationwide completed questions relating to their prior experiences in patient care and WMC using the 5As. Also assessed were their intentions to treat patients with overweight or obesity, and confidence in counseling patients to help manage their weight. Over half the students (58.3%) who completed the survey had prior experience in patient care and nearly half (47.4%) began medical school with prior WMC experiences. Prior experiences correlated positively with higher confidence in performing WMC and students' intentions to treat patients with overweight or obesity. Given the relatively high rates of exposure to some type of weight management or lifestyle counseling among students before enrolling in medical school, the curriculum could build on established student interest and experience by offering treatment strategies including counseling for patients with overweight and obesity. By making prior experiences advantageous for admission, medical schools could gravitate towards admitting students who have brief but valuable insights about weight management in health care, thus increasing the possibility of filling important gaps.
Keywords
5As, Medical students, Obesity, Overweight, Weight management counseling
Rights and Permissions
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101411
Source
Pendharkar JA, Frisard CF, Geller AC, Pbert L, Crawford S, Guck TP, Stadler DD, Ockene J. Weight management counseling experiences of first year medical students before starting medical school and their self-perceived impact on treating patients with obesity. Prev Med Rep. 2021 Jun 1;23:101411. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101411. PMID: 34150473; PMCID: PMC8193141. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Preventive medicine
PubMed ID
34150473
Repository Citation
Pendharkar JA, Frisard CF, Geller AC, Pbert L, Crawford SL, Guck TP, Stadler DD, Ockene JK. (2021). Weight management counseling experiences of first year medical students before starting medical school and their self-perceived impact on treating patients with obesity. University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101411. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/2068
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Health Services Administration Commons, Health Services Research Commons, Medical Education Commons, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Commons, Preventive Medicine Commons