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Cited by 127Obesity and Health PracticesInnovations in Medical EducationObesity, Physical Activity, Diet

Obesity education in medical schools, residencies, and fellowships throughout the world: a systematic review

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Mastrocola, Marissa R., Roque, Sebastian S., Benning, Lauren V., Stanford, Fatima Cody·2020·International Journal of Obesity
DOI 10.1038/s41366-019-0453-6PMC PMC7002222
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Abstract

Obesity is pandemic throughout the world, and there is concern that physicians are inadequately trained to treat their patients with obesity despite its prevalence. This review explores obesity education in medical students, resident, and fellow physicians throughout the world from 2005 to 2018. Previous reviews on obesity education were conducted before 2011, focused solely on medical students, and only explored obesity education in the United States. We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and ERIC databases for studies which included the search terms "obesity education" AND either "medical students", "residency", or "fellowship" that met PICOS (Population, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, Study Design) criteria for articles published in English for obesity education and evaluation of outcomes. Our initial search yielded 234 articles, and 27 studies met criteria for our review. We described and analyzed these studies for their study design and graded quality, quantity, and consistency for each measured outcome. We applied an evidence grading system that has been previously applied in the literature in which each outcome measure was graded on a scale from A to D. We evaluated obesity education programs for outcomes regarding implicit and explicit bias, changes in attitude towards obesity, weight change, obesity knowledge, counseling confidence, intent to counsel, and counseling quality. There was a significant degree of heterogeneity in the studies included. While obesity knowledge was most frequently studied, counseling confidence was the only outcome with an overall grade A. There is currently a paucity of obesity education programs for medical students, residents, and fellow physicians in training programs throughout the world despite high disease prevalence. However, these programs often improve outcomes when they are administered. Our review suggests that more obesity education should be administered in undergraduate and graduate medical education to ensure optimal treatment of patients with obesity.

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  • There is currently a scarcity of training available for undergraduate medical students and other healthcare professionals.

    “There is currently a scarcity of training available for undergraduate medical students and other HCPs.”

    From The societal implications of using glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists for the treatment of obesity (2025) · cites this paper as [59]

    The Discussion says obesity education is inadequate and describes only modest educational efforts for medical students and physician trainees. The review covers medical students, residents, and fellows; it does not establish a scarcity of training across other healthcare professions. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Authors
Mastrocola, M. R., Roque, S. S., Benning, L. V., & Stanford, F. C.
Affiliations
  • University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (US)
  • Tufts University (US)
  • Campbell University (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Stanford, Fatima Cody
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Obesity
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-09-24
Volume
44
Issue
2
Pages
269-279
ISSN
  • 0307-0565 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5497
DOI
10.1038/s41366-019-0453-6
PMC
PMC7002222
OpenAlex
W2975890512
Cited by
127
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2018: 1
FWCI
1.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • International Journal of Obesity (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (L30 DK118710, P30DK040561)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Obesity and Health Practices
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
Keywords
obesity education, medical students, residency training, fellowship training, obesity knowledge, implicit bias, weight stigma, graduate medical education
MeSH terms
Fellowships and Scholarships, Humans, Internship and Residency, Obesity, Schools, Medical, Nutritional Sciences

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