Developmental origins of health and disease: knowledge, attitude and practice of obstetrics & gynecology residents, pediatric residents, and medical students

ABSTRACT

Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) explains how the health of the mother influences the offspring’s risk of non-communicable diseases in later life. However, this remains underutilized in clinical practice. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of medical students, Obstetrics and Gynecology (O&G) and Pediatrics residents, toward DOHaD, identify potential barriers to DOHaD counseling, and translate DOHaD concepts into clinical practice. This cross-sectional study was conducted with a multi-section digital questionnaire, rated on a five-point Likert scale (1–5), with a higher score indicating better KAP. The scores between groups were compared using ANOVA. A total of 117 participants, comprising medical students (n = 75, 64.1 percent), O&G (n = 33, 28.2 percent) and Pediatric residents (n = 9, 7.7 percent), completed the questionnaire. The mean scores for the “Knowledge,” “Attitude” and “Practice” sections were 3.73 (standard deviation 0.82), 4.27 (0.59) and 3.03 (0.52), respectively. O&G residents scored higher for the “Practice” section than Pediatric residents (mean scores 3.17 vs. 2.16; p = .048). Overall, the participants demonstrated good knowledge and attitude, but poor practice toward DOHaD. Thus, there is a need to improve education and training for health care professionals, develop a structured implementation framework, and provide a transdisciplinary care continuum for mother and child.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• knowledge
• medical education
• practice
• preventative health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03630242.2022.2164396

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the KKH Health Services Model of Care Transformation Fund (MoCTF) National Medical Research Council, Ministry of Health, Singapore [NMRC/MOH- 000596-00]; Lien Foundation Optimizing Maternal and Child Health Programme Fund.