American journal of preventive medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Students' Report of Preceptor Weight Management Counseling at Eight U.S. Medical Schools.
Primary care providers, using brief counseling, can help patients increase motivation to initiate or maintain weight loss, improve diet, and increase physical activity. However, no prior studies have examined the degree to which primary care preceptors, who are responsible for mentoring medical students during their core clerkships, provide clinical teaching regarding weight management counseling. ⋯ Even with a U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation for primary care physicians to provide weight management counseling and endorsement from the major academic primary care societies, students in primary care clerkships report receiving little weight management counseling clinical teaching from their preceptors. The results reinforce the need for medical educators to teach and model weight management counseling for physicians-in-training if they are to achieve Task Force goals. Further research is required to better corroborate self-reported indicators of preceptor to student communication that are described herein.