Attitudes and Practices of Primary Care Physicians in the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Eastern Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global world-wide health problem in both developing and developed countries. In Saudi Arabia, this problem becomes an alarming disease both during childhood and adulthood among males and females. Primary health care physicians are identified as the first line of defense and contributor to cost-effective for the management and prevention of the disease; they are expected to normalize the weights in the community. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine attitudes and practice by physician working in primary health care centers regarding management of obesity in the cities of Dammam and Al-Khobar in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional study that took place from December 2009 to March 2010. A specially made questionnaire with a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.86 and content validity by 5 experts was used to measure the attitudes and practices from several different aspects of care provided at primary health care centers to obesity were distributed and collected from 76 physicians working in primary health centers in Dammam and 73 in Al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia. One hundred thirty physicians responded (12.8% non-response rate) and became the sample. RESULTS: Eighty-three per cent of physicians has negative attitude toward the concept of obesity, and more than two-thirds of primary care physicians see themselves play a key role in the management of obesity; The mean attitude scores of studied nurses was ranged from 2.95±1.06 to 4.34 ±0.82 with an agreement that obesity is considered as a disease and the role of the primary health care physician is not only to refer obese patients to other specialized care as well as difficulties in counseling for weight reduction. However, the majority of physicians gave their obese patients advice on dietary habits and physical activities and also they are sometimes referred obese people to dieticians. Moreover, half of physicians provide educational materials as part of the management and above two third of the studied physicians never use medications in weight reduction. Only one third of them believe that they are well prepared for the treatment of obesity. CONCLUSION: There exist gaps in attitudes contradictory for the management of obesity which indicates Physicians in Eastern Saudi Arabia showed a reasonable level of interest in participating in obesity prevention and management. Accordingly, they need for more education and training in management and prevention of obesity, and should continue education from medical school till post-graduate.