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

Access to allied health and specialist obesity services are barriers to obesity care in rural and regional populations in Australia. (#226)

Andrea Jasper 1 2 , Terri-Lynne South 3 4 , Carly Barlow 5 6 7 8 , Ramesh Manocha 9 10 , Christine Kim 11 , Talia Palacios 11 , Nuria Zamora Solano 11 , Samantha Hocking 12 13 14
  1. Impact Obesity, Cremorne, Vic, Australia
  2. Darebin Weight Loss Surgery, Bulleen, Vic, Australia
  3. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Specific Interest Group in Obesity Management, East Melbourne, Vic, Australia
  4. Lifestyle Metabolic, Ashgrove, Qld, 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 disproportionately impacts people living in outer regional and remote Australia. We conducted a national survey of Australian general practitioners (GPs) to determine whether obesity management differed by location.

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. Responses were stratified by general practice location: rural (population < 3,000), small town (population from 3,000 to under 20,000), medium city (population from 20,000 to under 150,000) and large city (population of 150,000 or greater).

Results: The survey was completed by 943 GPs. Of these, 15.6% (n=147) were from rural and small towns, 19.5% (n=184) medium towns and 64.9% (n=612) large cities. The proportion of GPs from rural and small towns who discussed obesity management with patients with obesity was similar to medium and large cities at 94.7%, 94.5% and 95.7%, respectively. A greater proportion of GPs in rural and small towns identified a lack of allied health practitioners with expertise in obesity management, a lack of specialist medicalobesity services and surgical (bariatric surgery) obesity services as barriers compared with GPs in medium towns and large cities (80.9% vs 63.6% vs 55.1%, 86.4% vs 75.0% vs 70.1% and 57.1% vs 41.3% vs 32.0%, respectively). A greater proportion of GPs from rural and small towns compared with large cities felt specialist medical (87.7% vs 74.5%, respectively) and surgical (89.8% vs 79.2%, respectively) obesity services were unaffordable for their patients.

Conclusions: GPs in rural and small towns do not differ from their medium and large city peers in discussing obesity management with their patients with obesity. Lack of access to and affordability of allied health and specialist obesity services are barriers to obesity care in rural and regional Australia.