Trends in Management of Overweight and Obesity in Obstetrics & Gynecology, Family Medicine and Pediatrics 2011-2015

Purpose: To assess for improvement in the screening and management of overweight and obesity in the past 5 years among Obstetrician-Gynecologists (OB-GYN), Family Physicians (FP), and Pediatricians (Peds).

Methods: A retrospective pilot study was conducted, reviewing 150 charts of patients with overweight (body mass index [BMI] 25-29.9 kg/m2) and class I (BMI 30-34.9 kg/m2), class II (BMI 35-39.9 kg/m2), and class III obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) between 2011 and 2015. Patients were from OB-GYN (n=50), Family Medicine, adult (FP-A) (n=50) and pediatric (FP-P) (n=28), and Peds (n=22) offices.

Results: 75% of patients were female; 35.5% had overweight, 40% had class I obesity, 13.3% had class II obesity, and 11.3% had class III obesity. 100% of clinicians used BMI; none used waist circumference. Peds (91%) and FP-P (96%) visits were more likely to include counseling compared to OB-GYN (30%) and FP-A (30%) visits (p<0.001). A decrease in nutrition counseling (71% vs. 29%, p<0.05) occurred between 2011 and 2015.

Conclusions: There remains significant room for improvement among all providers. Peds and FP-Ps may be more sensitive to the need for managing obesity than OBGYNs and FP-As. More efforts are needed to combat the obesity epidemic, starting with accurately identifying and counseling patients with obesity.