Abstract
Background
Education about the prevalent chronic disease of obesity is still minimal and variable in medical school curricula. In a student-led effort with faculty support, the authors designed and implemented an obesity medicine elective at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU). The 10-week elective, taught by seven physicians and one dietitian, was offered in January 2023 to medical students and included: weekly lectures, an interactive session with a patient, shadowing in obesity medicine practices, attendance at a distance-learning intensive behavioral lifestyle program, student presentations, and a final written reflection. The purpose of this study was to analyze the elective reflections and identify themes about the elective’s value and areas to improve.
Methods
The authors analyzed reflections from the 20 medical students that completed the elective via qualitative thematic analysis. The analysis was performed using the Braun and Clarke six-phase framework: (1) become familiar with the data, (2) generate initial codes, (3) search for themes, (4) review themes, (5) define themes, and (6) write-up.
Results
The themes identified were improved: (1) understanding of obesity as a chronic disease, (2) knowledge about treatment options for obesity (3) confidence in compassionate obesity counseling skills, and (4) skills to confront weight bias. Theme (5) consisted of highlights (hearing from experts, practicing evidence-based medicine, and interacting with patients), and areas to improve (session length, presentation format, more peer-to-peer interaction, and more diverse patient interactions).
Conclusions
Medical student assessments of a new obesity medicine elective described improved attitudes, knowledge, and skills to address obesity and obesity bias. Students were very satisfied and contributed ideas for improvements. This elective structure and evaluation method is a feasible model to provide medical students with meaningful experiences related to obesity.
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Data availability
The data generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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AO was responsible for designing the elective, analyzing the feedback, and drafting and editing the paper. KL, RW, SL, SB, and ES were responsible for designing the elective and editing the paper. ML and LM were responsible for analyzing the feedback and editing the paper.
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Olson, A., Lyons, K., Watowicz, R. et al. Obesity preclinical elective: a qualitative thematic analysis of student feedback. Int J Obes 48, 78–82 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01387-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01387-1
