Obesity

Research overview

“Obesity is the No. 1 health problem in the United States because it negatively affects our population’s health more than any other condition,” said Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Senior Investigator David Arterburn, MD, MPH. Kaiser Permanente Washington researchers are doing practical research to learn how doctors, patients, families, employers, and policymakers can best work together to prevent and treat obesity.

“We’re focusing on 3 ways to halt the obesity epidemic,” said Senior Investigator Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH. “We’re helping to change obesity-promoting environments, bringing evidence-based prevention and treatment programs into health care systems, and helping people develop lifelong healthy diet and activity habits.”

Kaiser Permanente Washington obesity research areas include:

• Helping patients and clinicians navigate the expanding options for obesity treatment, including Wegovy and other GLP-1s (short for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists)
• Reducing sedentary behavior and promoting physical activity and healthy diet in various age groups, populations with chronic conditions, and families
• Encouraging shared decision-making to help patients find the best way to a healthy weight
• Implementing health coaches and nutrition support in primary care to encourage behavior changes
• Leveraging social networks to support lifestyle change programs
• Understanding relationships between medications and genetic factors in developing obesity
• Supporting health system, community, and national policies that address obesity
• Studying relationships between obesity and depression, diabetes, and other conditions
• Understanding the long-term benefits and risks of bariatric (weight loss) surgery

“Obesity is caused by many factors, so at Kaiser Permanente Washington, we’re working on many levels,” said Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, a senior investigator and Kaiser Permanente Washington’s senior associate medical director for research and translation. “We’re improving health care to help people who are obese now. But since obesity is a societal problem, we’re also studying how to change our homes and workplaces and neighborhoods to create more healthy environments.”