The Influence of Sex and Gender on Health: How Much Is Being Taught in Medical School Curricula?

Sex is a biological variable linked to our chromosomal complement, while gender refers to one's personal identification as influenced by social, cultural, and personal experience. Both sex and gender and their interactions influence health outcomes. Although this is increasingly clear, we have not yet ensured that the next generation of physicians and physician-scientists is being taught the empirical findings necessary to understand these relationships.

Management of obesity: a challenge for medical training and practice.

Health-care providers are in a unique position to encourage people to make healthy lifestyle choices. However, lifestyle modification counseling is a complex task, made even more so by the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of patient populations. The objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of attending and physician-in-training weight control counseling in an urban academic internal medicine clinic serving a unique low-income multiethnic high-risk population.