Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

General Practitioners’ Perceptions with Regard to their Role in a Multidisciplinary Approach of Childhood Overweight

¹Leidsche Rijn Julius Health Centers, Utrecht, The Netherlands

²Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

*Corresponding Author:

Karolien van den Brekel
MD, PhD, Leidsche Rijn Julius Health Centers
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Tel: 030-6866100
E-mail: KvandenBrekel@lrjg.nl

Received date: November 03, 2016; Accepted date: November 21, 2016; Published date: November 25, 2016

Citation: van den Brekel K, Bakker J, Rutten GEHM, Vos RC (2016) General Practitioners’ Perceptions with Regard to their Role in a Multidisciplinary Approach of Childhood Overweight. J Community Med Health Educ 6:486. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000486

Copyright: © 2016 van den Brekel K, 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.

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity are a worldwide problem. In Utrecht, the Netherlands a pilot for a multidisciplinary approach with a coordinating healthcare provider will be implemented. Before the pilot starts, the opinions of the general practitioners in the pilot area will be studied, because their collaboration is important.
Aim: To obtain insight in the perceptions of general practitioners (GPs) with regard to their role in a multidisciplinary approach of childhood overweight.
Design and Setting: Survey; 36 GPs, selected by convenience sampling from two districts in Utrecht.
Methods: Mixed methods; self-developed questionnaires based on face validity and semi-structured interviews with GPs were conducted about their role in a multidisciplinary approach. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data collected by the questionnaire.
Results: Twenty-nine (81%) of the GPs filled in the questionnaire, 65% of them often observe overweight and obesity in children. Barriers to discuss childhood overweight were: lack of time, reluctance to raise the subject and lack of awareness by parents. Experienced barriers in treatment were: lack of motivation of the children and parents and lack of a structured treatment plan. Within the multidisciplinary approach, the interdisciplinary communication was mentioned; 83% of the GPs would like to be informed after the first and 100% after completion of treatment from other healthcare professionals.
Conclusion: GPs signalize childhood overweight frequently, but perceive barriers in discussing childhood overweight and obesity. In the multidisciplinary approach of childhood overweight, a structured treatment plan from the coordinating health care provider and optimized interdisciplinary communication are needed for better implementation.

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