天美传媒

Abstract

Obesity is multi-factorial and an important individual and population health issue as it contributes to a wide variety of chronic diseases, increases health care costs, and decreases productivity. Individualized nutrition counseling has been shown to be effective in aiding patients with weight loss. This literature review provides an insight on current dietetic referral practices of family physicians to prevent and manage obesity in primary health care settings. Databases searched include Scopus, Cochrane (Wiley), EMBASE, Science Direct, and PubMed. The search retrieved 302 articles among which 18 met inclusion criteria. Thirteen out of 18 articles stated that despite the need for nutrition counseling to reduce weight, there was no associated increase in dietetic referrals from family physicians (FP). Factors enabling dietetic referrals are: 1) working in a rural clinic (P<0.0005), 2) being a female physician (P<0.05), 3) patient having a higher body mass index (BMI), 4) patient who graduated college, 5) having more than 100 patients as these physicians were more likely to have a dietitian on site. Factors that disable dietetic referrals are: 1) not feasible due to limited access to a dietitian and cost of service, 2) not considered or not perceived as important by FP, 3) patient refusal, and 4) not required to record weight management interventions in the quality and outcomes framework. Minor disablers are 1) past treatment failed, and 2) contraindicated. Poor eating habits did not increase dietetic referrals as higher BMI did.

Biography

Email: sabou095@uottawa.ca