Nair Satish Chandrasekhar, Sheikh Saba Munib, Ibrahim Halah
Department of Academic Affairs, Tawam Hospital-Johns Hopkins Medicine Affiliate, Al Ain, UAE.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, UAE.
Int J Prev Med. 2019 Jun 7;10:93. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_64_18. eCollection 2019.
Obesity is a worldwide problem. The Arab world, and particularly the Middle East, has witnessed a recent dramatic rise in obesity and obesity-related diseases. Yet, little is known about physician attitudes toward or management of obesity in this region of the world. The purpose of this study is to explore physician perceptions and attitudes toward obesity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A cross-sectional, self-administered anonymous survey of primary care physicians was performed between December 2015 and January 2017 at academic medical centers in the UAE.
A total of 573 of 698 physicians (82% response rate) completed the survey. Thirty-seven percent of respondents met body mass index (BMI) criteria for overweight and 12% for obesity. Physicians had sufficient knowledge but lacked training in obesity management. Physician subspecialty impacted knowledge with internal medicine physicians showing better obesity knowledge (Chi-square 392, df 210, = 0.00). There was no significant relationship between knowledge and attitudes with physician age, gender, or nationality. Attitudinal responses toward obesity management were generally positive. However, there was an inverse correlation between physician BMI and positive attitudes toward obesity management (Chi-square 1551, df 323, = 0.00).
Although our study did not find significant weight bias, negative attitudes were directly correlated with physician BMI, a significant concern as half of physicians surveyed reported BMIs consistent with overweight and obesity.
肥胖是一个全球性问题。阿拉伯世界，尤其是中东地区，近期肥胖及肥胖相关疾病急剧增加。然而，对于世界该地区医生对肥胖的态度或管理方式却知之甚少。本研究的目的是探讨阿联酋医生对肥胖的认知和态度。
2015年12月至2017年1月期间，在阿联酋的学术医疗中心对初级保健医生进行了一项横断面、自我管理的匿名调查。
698名医生中有573名（回复率82%）完成了调查。37%的受访者符合超重的体重指数（BMI）标准，12%符合肥胖标准。医生有足够的知识，但在肥胖管理方面缺乏培训。医生的亚专业影响知识水平，内科医生表现出更好的肥胖知识（卡方检验392，自由度210，P = 0.00）。知识与医生年龄、性别或国籍之间的态度没有显著关系。对肥胖管理的态度反应总体上是积极的。然而，医生的BMI与对肥胖管理的积极态度之间存在负相关（卡方检验1551，自由度323，P = 0.00）。
虽然我们的研究没有发现明显的体重偏见，但消极态度与医生的BMI直接相关，这是一个重大问题，因为接受调查的医生中有一半报告的BMI符合超重和肥胖标准。
