The knowledge and practices of family doctors in counselling obese patients

Background: Promoting a healthy lifestyle is one of the basic pieces in the family medicine activity. In order to formulate and / or adjust some approaches in clinical practice of the family doctor in the Republic of Moldova, it was necessary to analyse the knowledge and practices of the family doctor regarding the obese patients counselling. Material and methods: Cross-sectional study was based on primary data collection. The study sample included 316 family doctors. The descriptive analysis was expressed in absolute values, percentages and standard errors, means and standard deviation of the mean. Statistical significance was considered to be p <0.05. Results: Family doctors feel best prepared in counselling patients on stress management (75.9 ± 2.40%), prescribing healthy diets (71.2 ± 2.55%), prescribing physical activity (71.0 ± 2.55%), cerebrovascular accident (CVA) prevention (68.9 ± 2.60%). They feel less prepared in counselling patients with regard to weight control (67.5 ± 2.63%). Conclusions: Managing obesity in primary health care remains indispensably linked with the clinical practices of family doctors. Research has shown that family doctors are less prepared in counselling patients regarding weight control than regarding other important components of obesity management. According to the study, it was found that male family doctors, family doctors over the age of 45, those who work in the primary health care providers located in the rural area, those who have a working experience of over 21 years, and those who serve sectors with a population of up to 1500 people feel more prepared in counselling obese patients.