District nurses' self-reported clinical activities, beliefs about and attitudes towards obesity management

Aim: To describe district nurses' self-reported clinical activities, beliefs about and attitudes towards obesity management; and to examine associations between the variables.

Background: Obesity is increasing worldwide and primary care could play a central role in the management.

Methods: Questionnaire data were collected from 247 nurses in 33 centres.

Results: The most common activities performed weekly were; advice about physical activity (40.1%) and general lifestyle advice (34.8%). However, nearly one third seldom/never performed these activities. Approximately half seldom/never performed BMI assessment and even fewer waist circumference (78.1%). Values for the factors Importance of obesity and Personal effectiveness were skewed towards a positive view and Negative view close to neutral. Multivariate analysis revealed that nurses with specialized tasks, longer working experience and higher perceived personal effectiveness performed more clinical activities.

Conclusion: Managers need to make efforts to engage all personnel in obesity management; and strategies to increase self-efficacy are called for.