1. Overweight and obesity management in musculo-skeletal primary care: a survey of Australian health practitioners exploring 'the elephant in the room'.
- Author
-
Stevens, John, Orrock, Paul, Verco, Brent, and Egger, Garry
- Subjects
- *
OBESITY treatment , *MUSCULOSKELETAL system diseases , *REGULATION of body weight , *THERAPEUTICS , *ATTITUDES of medical personnel , *SELF-evaluation , *RESEARCH methodology , *CLIENT relations , *ATTITUDE (Psychology) , *PRIMARY health care , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *WEIGHT loss , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *DATA analysis software , *THEMATIC analysis , *HEALTH promotion - Abstract
Background: Overweight and obesity has a bi-directional association with the growing burden of musculoskeletal (MSk) dysfunction and pain. It seems inevitable that MSk practitioners will see increasing numbers of patients who are overweight and or obese and require this to be addressed as part of their management. Little evidence exists to describe the engagement of patients and their MSk practitioner in weight management as an adjunct or direct component of their intervention or therapy. Methods: A self-administered electronic survey was constructed with 13 items to collect self-reported data from Australian practitioners who have a focus on MSk management. The target group was from a multidisciplinary MSk network of 350 members. Results: A total of 204 completed surveys were analysed from respondents working in one of seven MSk- related professions. It was found that 70% of patients/clients seen by respondents were overweight or obese and that <18% of these patients had weight management included as part of their treatment. Conclusions: Sixty percent of the respondents in this survey indicated that they do not include weight management as part of their practice despite 70% of their patients/clients being overweight and or obese. With the exception of Medical Practitioners and Exercise Physiologists, in this survey, the other therapists including Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists, indicated that they lacked confidence, knowledge and methods to engage a systematic approach to weight management with their patients/clients. A large percentage of presentations for musculoskeletal management are overweight/obese, and it is reported that musculoskeletal conditions are impacted by this co-morbid issue. It is little known to what extent musculoskeletal clinicians manage overweight/obesity as part of their practice, and this research found most musculoskeletal clinicians do not manage this issue, claiming they do not have the knowledge or skill to include this in their scope. This finding prompts consideration of limitations in scope of practice and subsequent curriculum change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF