Ibraheem Alsmari*, Abdulmjeed Alshaikh, Saeed Mohammed Albaqih, Turkiah Alotaibi and Mostafa Kofi

Family and Community Medicine Department; Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Saudi Arabia

*Corresponding Author: Ibraheem Alsmari, Family and Community Medicine Department; Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Saudi Arabia.

Received: May 19, 2023; Published: June 03, 2023

Abstract

Background: Obesity is one of the most common health problems in Saudi Arabia affecting people of both gender and all ages. Primary care physicians are key health personnel that encounters obese patients regularly. However, few physicians are knowledgeable about the management of morbid obesity, especially surgical treatment and procedures.

Objective: To provide information contributing to the improvement of the knowledge and perception among primary care physicians about bariatric surgery, and their ability to care for patients who suffer from morbid obesity.

Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. The study population was Primary care physicians working at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire developed by researchers of the university health network -Toronto adapted and modified to fit the setting of practice in the study population. The questionnaire was distributed among the physicians over 3 waves until 170 completed questionnaires were collected.

Results: Of the total 170 respondents, Most of the participants (64.1%) reported measuring their patient’s weight on each clinic visit. The majority (97.6%) used BMI to assess the weight of a patient (88.8%) of respondents had referred obese patients for bariatric surgery. The majority of responses admits the lack of knowledge for all types of surgery in question. Regarding the questions in the survey, a significant difference in the comparison between those who referred versus who did not refer patients to bariatric surgery is obvious in the percentage of morbidly obese patients seen in the last 12 months (p-value 0.015) and the ideal bariatric procedure in average patients (p-value 0.043).

Conclusions and Recommendations: The study conclude that the knowledge of physicians in the bariatric surgical treatment of morbid obesity is insufficient.
More guidelines and continuing education should be emphasized regularly to the physicians in order to improve their knowledge on management of obesity.

Keywords:Bariatric Surgery; Obesity; Knowledge; Physician; Primary Care; Saudi Arabia

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Citation

Citation: Ibraheem Alsmari., et al. “Knowledge and Perception of Bariatric Surgery Among Primary Care Physicians, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 7.7 (2023): 03-16.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Ibraheem Alsmari., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.