U.S. Health professionals' views on obesity care, training, and self-efficacy

Background Despite emphasis of recent guidelines on multidisciplinary teams for collaborative weight management, little is known about non-physician health professionals' perspectives on obesity, their weight management training, and self-efficacy for obesity care. Purpose To evaluate differences in health professionals' perspectives on (1) the causes of obesity; (2) training in weight management; and (3) self-efficacy for providing obesity care. Methods Data were obtained from a cross-sectional Internet-based survey of 500 U.S. Health professionals from nutrition, nursing, behavioral/mental health, exercise, and pharmacy (collected from January 20 through February 5, 2014). Inferences were derived using logistic regression adjusting for age and education (analyzed in 2014). Results Nearly all non-physician health professionals, regardless of specialty, cited individual-level factors, such as overconsumption of food (97%), as important causes of obesity. Nutrition professionals were significantly more likely to report high-quality training in weight management (78%) than the other professionals (nursing, 53%; behavioral/mental health, 32%; exercise, 50%; pharmacy, 47%; p<0.05). Nutrition professionals were significantly more likely to report high confidence in helping obese patients achieve clinically significant weight loss (88%) than the other professionals (nursing, 61%; behavioral/mental health, 51%; exercise, 52%; pharmacy, 61%; p<0.05), and more likely to perceive success in helping patients with obesity achieve clinically significant weight loss (nutrition, 81%; nursing, behavioral/mental health, exercise, and pharmacy, all <50%; p<0.05). Conclusions Nursing, behavioral/mental health, exercise, and pharmacy professionals may need additional training in weight management and obesity care to effectively participate in collaborative weight management models.