Self-Reported Obesity Medicine Competence, Knowledge, and Attitudes Among US Medical Students: An Eight-School Pre- vs. Post-Intervention Study.

BACKGROUND

Obesity contributes to many chronic diseases that internists manage. Even though there is a documented gap in obesity education, no studies have evaluated competency-based obesity education interventions from the learner perspective.

AIM: To develop and implement a pilot, multi-institutional, competency-based obesity medicine curriculum intervention, with the learner perspective as the primary outcome.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: We developed and implemented an educational intervention grounded in social constructivist learning theory and guided by the logic model framework. Students provided self-rating on each of the 32 obesity medicine competencies and their beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of obesity medicine, both pre- and post-interventions.

SETTING AND

PARTICIPANTS

Eight diverse US medical schools participated (September 2023-October 2025); pre- and post-intervention surveys were completed by 1829 (60%) and 1187 (39%) students, respectively. The dialogue within school-based teams was supported by an expert steering committee that provided scaffolding and expertise.

PROGRAM EVALUATION: Following the intervention, students reported significantly (p < 0.001) higher ratings across all 32 obesity medicine competencies (3.15 ± 0.56 vs. 2.79 ± 0.72; mean ± SD), higher knowledge about obesity (3.00 ± 0.29 vs. 2.92 ± 0.29; mean ± SD), lower negative beliefs (2.08 ± 0.41 vs. 2.82 ± 0.44; mean ± SD), and higher positive attitudes toward patients with obesity (3.55 ± 0.40 vs. 1.53 ± 0.41; mean ± SD).

DISCUSSION: This large study approach demonstrates feasibility and scalability of a multi-institutional collaborative framework for addressing the curricular gap in obesity medicine education.