Background Obesity has become a global epidemic. Surgical treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders in China is increasing rapidly, but it is still a new discipline even to health professionals. As an important member of the multidisciplinary team, the knowledge and attitudes of nurses provide crucial health care to the patients and support to surgeons. Objectives To study the Chinese nurses' knowledge of obesity and metabolic disorders, and attitudes towards bariatric surgery and to improve their capability of work in this new discipline. Methods This is a multicenter study, with the questionnaire distributed to cooperative hospitals in the form of an electronic questionnaire by the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University in April 2018. A questionnaire was designed to investigate nurses' demographic, knowledge, and attitude towards obesity, weight loss, and bariatric surgery. Results A total of 5311 questionnaires were received, with an effective rate of 91.8% (4878 questionnaires); 65.2% of nurses had a normal BMI. Nurses generally had a high knowledge of obesity and related cardiovascular diseases (98.6%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (90.2%). However, there was a lack of knowledge in other related aspects, for example its relations to carcinoma (49.5%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (40.1%), and psychological disorders (49.1%), which are controversial issues in bariatric surgery. It was found that education (p < 0.05) had an important influence to nurses' knowledge about the comorbidities of obesity. Female nurses had a higher tendency to choose weight loss than males, but male nurses did physical exercise more frequently than females (p < 0.05). Their acceptance of safety (25.1%) and efficacy (22.9%) of bariatric surgery is low, with concerns predominantly about postoperative complications and adverse effects. Surgical nurses had a more optimistic attitude towards surgery (p < 0.05). Conclusions Chinese nurses have poor knowledge of obesity-related metabolic disorders and also have poor acceptance of surgical treatment modalities. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to enhance the continuing education of Chinese nurses for obesity, metabolic disorders, and bariatric surgery.

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