Health Policy 91 (2009) 195–203 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Health Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol French pediatricians’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs towards and practices in the management of weight problems in children Carine Franc, Maaike Van Gerwen, Marc Le Vaillant, Sophia Rosman, Nathalie Pelletier-Fleury ∗ CERMES, CNRS UMR8169 - Inserm U750 - EHESS, Site CNRS, 7 rue Guy Môquet, 94801 VILLEJUIF Cedex, France article info Keywords: Obesity management Pediatricians Primary care KABP Prevention abstract A representative sample of 611 French pediatricians was interviewed on their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs towards and practices regarding childhood obesity through a 39-item Lik- ert format questionnaire. A vast majority of the respondents regarded obesity as an illness (86.4%), 70.2% were aware that without any treatment an obese child has a high risk to remain obese in adulthood, 84% reported that managing obesity is part of their responsi- bility in the routine practice and 89.3% affirmed to systematically inform parents of obese children on health risks associated with obesity. At the same time, 82.4% were convinced that managing obesity is bound to fail and only 46.5% that it is professionally gratifying. However, doctors who followed a vocational training dedicated to obesity felt themselves more efficient in managing childhood obesity (p < 0.01), those who knew the national rec- ommendations were also less likely to report that the management of childhood obesity leads to a failure (p < 0.05). Probably one of the main result of our study concerns doctors’ perception of the relative impact of the different etiologic factors of obesity. Beside seden- tary life, poor eating behavior, lack of parental concern and heredity which are cited by more than three-fourth of the pediatricians, an economic situation more and more insecure and a food industry increasingly more powerful are reported for the first time by doctors them- selves, respectively by 59.9% and 60.8% of them, to kill the goodwill of health professionals. These findings reinforce the idea that the solution to the obesity problem does not lie just within the doctor’s office and stress the need for prompt regulatory actions to curb obesity. © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In France, as in other European countries, the preva- lence of weight problems in children and adolescents is increasing alarmingly [1]. Recent studies carried out in representative samples of schoolchildren indicated that respectively 14%, 19.9%, and 12.4% of the children of 6, 11 and 15 years old were overweight [2–4]. Even if more recent results from the INCA-2 survey suggest that child- hood overweight rates in France are undergoing an overall ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 49 58 33 25; fax: +33 1 49 58 34 85. E-mail address: npfleury@vjf.cnrs.fr (N. Pelletier-Fleury). stabilization [5], rising trends are still observed among children with a low economic status [6]. At that rate and without a significant trend reversal, one can expect 20% of the French population to be obese in 2020 [7]. Health and medical costs of obesity are no longer to be proven, especially in the US where the issue has long been the focus of policy debate and academic research. The health consequences of obesity in adulthood range from an increased risk of premature death to several non-fatal but debilitating complaints that have deleterious impacts on quality of life (osteoarthritis, respiratory problems, etc.). The more threatening chronic health problems associ- ated with obesity include diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and certain types of cancer, such as colon, 0168-8510/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2008.12.005