EduWeight: Weight Management for Adult Patients with Chronic Disease

Improve your confidence and skills in helping your patients manage their weight

Lifestyle behaviours related to weight management are important in treating chronic disease, but clinicians often lack confidence and skills in having discussions about weight and supporting positive behaviour change. This six-week EduWeight course from the University of Melbourne is designed to change that.

Explore all aspects of weight management

By the end of this EduWeight course, you’ll have a clear understanding of how weight and chronic disease influence each other and how to support positive behaviour change for people living with overweight or obesity.

You’ll start by looking at the physiological mechanisms of weight regulation, weight loss benefits for multiple chronic disease conditions, and body responses to weight change. You’ll also learn about behaviour change theory as well as pragmatic behaviour change techniques to use in your clinical setting.

Ensure positive, stigma-free discussions to promote lifestyle change

You’ll explore the topic of weight stigma, in society and in healthcare, before looking at communication approaches for addressing weight management in a stigma-free manner, as well as intervention strategies to promote weight management.

All of this will help you to have positive and productive discussions with your patients, making them more likely to actively engage in lifestyle changes that fit in with their lives.

Learn about weight management from the experts

This course has been developed by the University of Melbourne with input from expert researchers and clinicians in physiotherapy, endocrinology, dietetics, and behaviour change.

EduWeight is based on current evidence and has been designed to help learning in the area of weight management.

This course is designed for all clinicians working with adult patients with chronic diseases who would benefit from weight management.

This course is designed for all clinicians working with adult patients with chronic diseases who would benefit from weight management.

• Describe to your patients on the associations and mechanisms linking overweight with chronic diseases, and the benefits of weight loss
• Explain to your patients on the physiological mechanisms of weight regulation, weight loss and weight re-gain
• Assess a variety of dietary interventions, work with the patient to identify which intervention would suit their needs and direct them to the information they need to get started
• Develop an understanding of weight stigma and examine your own beliefs about weight
• Apply a communication approach for having weight management discussions with patients in a positive, supportive, non-stigmatizing manner
• Apply behaviour change techniques, including motivational interviewing, into your patient interactions to promote behaviour change