Top Things to Know: Obesity science implementation into clinical practice
Published: May 20, 2024
Prepared by Prepared by: Deepika Laddu, PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Obesity is increasingly acknowledged as a public health epidemic, characterized by a multifactorial and complex pathogenesis. Despite progress in managing other population risk factors, the persistent challenge of obesity has hindered efforts to reduce cardiovascular disease burden.
- In the last several years, advancements in obesity science have contributed to notable scientific discoveries and emerging therapeutic options to address obesity have become more prevalent.
- Despite these advancements, effective implementation of obesity knowledge and therapeutic evidence has lagged behind scientific progress, creating a significant gap between obesity science and its practical application in clinical practice.
- Overcoming barriers to obesity science implementation necessitates a comprehensive, multi-targeted approach that includes adopting established methodologies, and finding solutions to challenges that span various levels (patient, clinician, system, community), in order to enhance the delivery and accessibility of obesity-targeted therapies while maximizing the effectiveness of guideline-driven care to under-resourced populations with obesity.
- This Scientific Statement describes effective or promising strategies to enhance clinical application of obesity-based research, identify key gaps in the implementation of obesity science into clinical practice, and encourage health care professionals, health care systems and other stakeholders’ efforts to adopt or implement evidence-based obesity science for improved population-level management.
- Successful methods for enhancing the delivery of evidence-based obesity care to patients include improving healthcare professional education on obesity medicine, offering, or referring patients to behavioral lifestyle counseling using team-based care, reimbursement or referral models, and utilizing available national resources.
- Knowledge gaps in both professional and patient-level understanding of lifestyle therapies, underutilization of pharmacotherapies for obesity treatment, barriers related to accessibility of obesity surgeries and self-management for long-term obesity care are discussed.
- Insufficient data on the cost-effectiveness of obesity therapies and associated long-term health outcomes pose significant barriers to the widespread adoption of obesity science in clinical settings.
- This statement identifies promising opportunities and innovative or practical approaches to effectively and systematically bridge implementation gaps in clinical environments and advance population-level management of obesity. Examples include adoption of digital technologies and telemedicine, and referrals to community-based weight management programs that may foster behavior change, provide social support, and enhance reach, access, and quality of obesity care.
- Additional implications for policy, and future research to improve patient care models and optimize the delivery and sustainability of equitable obesity-related care are discussed.
Citation
Laddu D, Neeland IJ, Carnethon M, Stanford FC, Mongraw-Chaffin M, Barone Gibbs B, Ndumele CE, Longenecker CT, Chung ML, Rao G; on behalf of the American Heart Association Obesity Committee of the Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; Council on Epidemiology and Prevention; Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Hypertension; Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease; and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Implementation of obesity science into clinical practice: a scientific statement from the American HeartAssociation. Circulation. Published online May 20, 2024. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001221