Barriers and Facilitators to Weight and Lifestyle Management in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: General Practitioners’ Perspectives
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Knowledge on the Importance of Weight and Lifestyle Management and the Use of Guidelines
“I’d say it’s the biggest role. So, first-line treatment would be lifestyle change and looking at weight reduction and increasing exercise and activity.”—Participant 8, rural
“You give me 300 pages of guidelines I’m not going to read it.”—Participant 6, Rural
“We are overrun with guidelines There are literally just guidelines pouring out left, right and center, and we deal with every condition, every age group.”—Participant 4, non-CALD
3.2. Barriers to Weight and Lifestyle Management
3.2.1. System-Related Factors
“There are huge barriers in terms of regional areas…some of the places if I’m referring to see a dietitian… it may be three-plus months before they could potentially get into see somebody.”—Participant 9, Rural
“There’s an out of pocket cost for the patients and sometimes they just can’t afford that out of pocket cost. Even though we as GPs bulk bill them, our allied health colleagues do not.”—Participant 6, Rural
3.2.2. Individual-Related Factors
“It’s difficult to measure that sort of success. I think with lifestyle conditions, its sometimes difficult to manage because you don’t feel necessarily a great sense of satisfaction because it’s very difficult to get good results. So, it’s not like. I’ve seen a grossly overweight woman suddenly... you know, in two years’ time, becoming lean. It’s unrewarding in the long run when they come back and they you weigh them, and they haven’t really lost much weight, or any weight at all.”—Participant 5, non-CALD
“I do my best, but obviously I can’t spend a lot of time, talking about diet and give explanations. I just outline, in general, what they have to do.”—Participant 14, CALD
“The way the Medicare schedule is certainly set up is you’re rewarded for seeing people for short periods of time.”—Participant 11, CALD
“I don’t think it rewards those GP’s who are really thorough and want to try to address and cover all the issues that are there. I think, unfortunately, those doctors are penalised.”—Participant 9, Rural
“It’s patient-driven and it’s always hard to get people to actually go and do the resource. We’re really good at making up new resources, but you’ve got to get the person who’s got the metabolic problem to actually want to use the resource.”—Participant 2, Non-CALD
“No one wants to hear that if you exercise and eat healthily your acne will get better in maybe a year’s time. People want a quick fix for that.”—Participant 3, Non-CALD
"It is a really hard thing to discuss to people, you know. It’s hard because it is so emotionally laden.”—Participant 3 Non-CALD
3.3. Facilitators of Weight and Lifestyle Management
System-Related Factors
“There are some systems in place, like, chronic disease management plans that we can use to refer patients off to dietitians or exercise physiologists so I guess that’s one positive thing that’s out there.”—Participant 3, Non-CALD
“I think a GP is a great person to help coordinate that care, because they provide holistic care.”—Participant 3 Non-CALD
“I think that’s where motivational interviewing comes in, and that’s a skill that GPs often do have, which is a way of discussing with patients, and eliciting their own motivation for activity.”—Participant 5, Non-CALD
“That’s a big motivating factor for women. You know, one of the primary reasons, I think, they come and see you, as a GP, is because they’re trying to get pregnant.”—Participant 9, Rural
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Characteristics | Responses | N (%) |
---|---|---|
Gender | Men | 4 (26) |
Women | 11 (74) | |
Geographical location | Metropolitan | 10 (67) |
Rural | 5 (33) | |
Number of years in practice | 1–5 years | 1 (7) |
6–10 years | 5 (33) | |
11–15 years | 2 (13) | |
15–20 years | 3 (20) | |
21+ years | 4 (26) | |
Estimate of frequency of PCOS patients encountered | Weekly basis | 9 (60) |
Monthly basis | 1 (7) | |
Yearly basis | 5 (33) | |
Patient demographic | CALD * (at least 30–40% of patients from CALD backgrounds) | 5 (33) |
Non-CALD (<30–40% of patients from CALD backgrounds) | 6 (40) | |
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders | 4 (27) |
Categories | Sub-Categories | Themes |
---|---|---|
Knowledge | Importance of lifestyle management Practicality of guidelines in clinical practice | |
Practice barriers | System-related factors | Physical access to allied health professionals Financial access to allied health professionals |
Individual-related factors | Perceived lack of patient motivation for weight management Time constraints Lack of financial reimbursement Professionally unrewarding | |
Practice facilitators | System-related factors | Chronic disease management plans The general practitioner’s role in chronic disease management |
Individual-related factors | Perceived positive patient motivators Communication techniques/motivational interviewing |
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Arasu, A.; Moran, L.J.; Robinson, T.; Boyle, J.; Lim, S. Barriers and Facilitators to Weight and Lifestyle Management in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: General Practitioners’ Perspectives. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1024. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11051024
Arasu A, Moran LJ, Robinson T, Boyle J, Lim S. Barriers and Facilitators to Weight and Lifestyle Management in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: General Practitioners’ Perspectives. Nutrients. 2019; 11(5):1024. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11051024
Chicago/Turabian StyleArasu, Alexis, Lisa J Moran, Tracy Robinson, Jacqueline Boyle, and Siew Lim. 2019. "Barriers and Facilitators to Weight and Lifestyle Management in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: General Practitioners’ Perspectives" Nutrients 11, no. 5: 1024. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11051024