Poster Presentation Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society Annual Scientific Conference 2024

Obesity management in primary care in Australia – a general practitioner survey. (#268)

Terri-Lynne South 1 2 , Andrea Jasper 3 4 , Carly Barlow 5 6 7 8 , Ramesh Manocha 9 10 , Nuria Zamora Solano 11 , Christine Kim 11 , Talia Palacios 11 , Samantha Hocking 12 13 14
  1. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Specific Interest Group in Obesity Management, East Melbourne, Vic, Australia
  2. Lifestyle Metabolic, Ashgrove, Qld, Australia
  3. Impact Obesity, Cremorne, Vic, Australia
  4. Darebin Weight Loss Surgery, Bulleen, Vic, Australia
  5. Gold Coast Private Hospital, Southport, Qld, Australia
  6. The Weight Loss Specialist Clinic, Southport, Qld, Australia
  7. The Metabolic Dietitian, Gold Coast, Qld, Australia
  8. Lightly, Gold Coast, Qld, Australia
  9. Healthed, Burwood, NSW, Australia
  10. General Practice Clinical School, Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  11. NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  12. Boden Initiative, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  13. Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  14. Metabolism and Obesity Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Background: Obesity affects an estimated 8 million Australian adults necessitating treatment of obesity in primary care. We aimed to identify current obesity management practices in primary care through a national General Practitioner (GP) survey.

Methods: An online survey on obesity management was distributed through the National Association of Clinical Obesity Services (NACOS), the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Obesity Specific Interest Group and Healthed to determine current obesity management practices.

Results: The survey was completed by 943 GPs (representing ~2.5% Australian GPs) from all states and territories, with 64.9% respondents practicing in large cities. The mean number of patients seen monthly was 326.8, with mean 18.1 patients monthly treated primarily for obesity. Most GPs (67.1%) reported feeling comfortable having discussions about weight with their patients, with 55.7% having discussions about obesity management with patients with obesity most of the time or always. Most GPs (58.2%) did not consult the Australian Obesity Management Algorithm and only 12.7% had undertaken formal training in obesity management. When treating obesity, GPs provided dietary and lifestyle advice themselves most of the time (37.2%) or always (54.4%). Although 83.4% GPs reported using GP Management Plans for treating obesity, most referred to allied health clinicians only sometimes (54.7%) or never/rarely (15.0%). Very low energy diets were recommended sometimes (37.5%), rarely (27.4%) or never (18%). In contrast, prescription anti-obesity medications were recommended sometimes (59.2%) or most of the time/always (22.3%). GPs never/rarely referred patients with obesity to specialist obesity clinics (52.1%) or bariatric surgeons (41.1%).

Conclusion: Despite a lack of formal obesity management training, most GPs self-managed patients with obesity without the involvement of allied health or specialist clinicians. There was a lack of awareness of Australian obesity management guidelines resulting in underutilisation of evidence-based obesity management.