Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Jan 28;20(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-1925-z.
Physicians are currently unprepared to treat patients with obesity, which is of great concern given the obesity epidemic in the United States. This study sought to evaluate the current status of obesity education among U.S. medical schools, benchmarking the degree to which medical school curricula address competencies proposed by the Obesity Medicine Education Collaborative (OMEC).
Invitations to complete an online survey were sent via postal mail to 141 U.S. medical schools compiled from Association of American Medical Colleges. Medical school deans and curriculum staff knowledgeable about their medical school curriculum completed online surveys in the summer of 2018. Descriptive analyses were performed.
Forty of 141 medical schools responded (28.4%) and completed the survey. Only 10.0% of respondents believe their students were "very prepared" to manage patients with obesity and one-third reported that their medical school had no obesity education program in place and no plans to develop one. Half of the medical schools surveyed reported that expanding obesity education was a low priority or not a priority. An average of 10 h was reported as dedicated to obesity education, but less than 40% of schools reported that any obesity-related topic was well covered (i.e., to a "great extent"). Medical students received an adequate education (defined as covered to at least "some extent") on the topics of biology, physiology, epidemiology of obesity, obesity-related comorbidities, and evidence-based behavior change models to assess patient readiness for counseling (range: 79.5 to 94.9%). However, in approximately 30% of the schools surveyed, there was little or no education in nutrition and behavioral obesity interventions, on appropriate communication with patients with obesity, or pharmacotherapy. Lack of room in the curriculum was reported as the greatest barrier to incorporating obesity education.
Currently, U.S. medical schools are not adequately preparing their students to manage patients with obesity. Despite the obesity epidemic and high cost burden, medical schools are not prioritizing obesity in their curricula.
由于美国的肥胖症流行，医生目前还没有准备好治疗肥胖症患者，这令人非常担忧。本研究旨在评估美国医学院的肥胖症教育现状，以衡量医学院课程在多大程度上满足肥胖医学教育协作组织（Obesity Medicine Education Collaborative，OMEC）提出的能力要求。
通过美国医学协会汇编的邮寄地址向 141 所美国医学院发出了参加在线调查的邀请。各医学院院长和熟悉其医学课程的课程人员于 2018 年夏季在线完成了调查。进行了描述性分析。
在 141 所医学院中，有 40 所（28.4%）做出了回应并完成了调查。只有 10.0%的受访者认为他们的学生“非常有准备”来管理肥胖症患者，三分之一的受访者报告称他们的医学院没有肥胖症教育计划，也没有计划制定一个这样的计划。一半的被调查医学院表示，扩大肥胖症教育是一个低优先级或不是优先事项。报告平均分配了 10 个小时用于肥胖症教育，但不到 40%的学校报告称任何肥胖相关主题都得到了很好的涵盖（即，达到了“很大程度”）。医学生接受了足够的教育（定义为至少涵盖“某些程度”），涉及生物学、生理学、肥胖症流行病学、肥胖症相关合并症以及评估患者接受咨询准备情况的基于证据的行为改变模型（范围：79.5%至 94.9%）。然而，在大约 30%的被调查学校中，在营养和行为肥胖干预、与肥胖症患者的适当沟通或药物治疗方面几乎没有或没有教育。报告称课程中缺乏空间是纳入肥胖症教育的最大障碍。
目前，美国医学院没有充分培养学生来管理肥胖症患者。尽管肥胖症流行且成本负担高，但医学院并没有将肥胖症作为课程的重点。
