Obesity

“We’re looking for innovative ways to both treat and prevent obesity — including creating healthier environments and designing programs for whole families.”

David Arterburn, MD, MPH
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Senior Investigator
Washington Permanente Medical Group, Internal Medicine

Research overview

“Obesity is the number-one 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 three 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:

reducing sedentary behavior and promoting physical activity and healthy diet in various age groups, populations with chronic conditions, and families;
shared decision making to help patients find the best way to a healthy weight;
implementing health coaches in primary care to support behavior changes;
social networks that support lifestyle change programs;
relationships between medications and genetic factors in developing obesity;
health system, community, and national policies that address obesity;
relationships between obesity and depression, diabetes, and other conditions; and
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 assistant medical director for preventive care. “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.”

Recent publications on Obesity

Young DR, Fischer H, Arterburn D, Bessesen D, Cromwell L, Daley MF, Desai J, Ferrara A, Fitzpatrick SL, Horberg MA, Koebnick C, Nau CL, Oshiro C, Waitzfelder B, Yamamoto A. Associations of overweight/obesity and socioeconomic status with hypertension prevalence across racial and ethnic groups. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2018 Mar;20(3):532-540. doi: 10.1111/jch.13217. Epub 2018 Feb 12. PubMed

Rosenberg DE, Lee AK, Anderson M, Renz A, Matson TE, Kerr J, Arterburn D, McClure JB. Reducing sedentary time for obese older adults: protocol for a randomized controlled trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2018;7(2):e23. doi: 10.2196/resprot.8883. PubMed

Arterburn D, Gupta A. Comparing the outcomes of sleeve gastrectomy and roux-en-y gastric bypass for severe obesity. JAMA. 2018 Jan 16;319(3):235-237. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.20449. PubMed

Drewnowski A, Buszkiewicz J, Aggarwal A, Cook A, Moudon AV. A new method to visualize obesity prevalence in Seattle-King County at the census block level. Obes Sci Pract. 2017 Dec 28;4(1):14-19. doi: 10.1002/osp4.144. eCollection 2018 Feb. PubMed

Turcot V, Lu Y, Highland HM, Schurmann C, Justice AE, Fine RS, Bradfield JP, Esko T, Giri A, Graff M, Hendricks AE, Karaderi T, Lempradl AM, Locke AE, Mahajan A, Manning AK, Marouli E, Medina-Gomez C, Reiner AP, Sivapalaratnam S, Winkler TW, Young KL, Alfred T, Feitosa MF, Masca NGD, Mudgal P, Ng MCY, Vedantam S, Willems SM, Abecasis G, Alam DS, Alharthi SE, Allison M, Amouyel P, Asselbergs FW, Auer PL, Balkau B, Bang LE, Barroso I, Bastarache L, Benn M, Bergmann S, Bielak LF, Blüher M, Boehnke M, Boeing H, Boerwinkle E, Böger CA, Bork-Jensen J, Bots ML, Bottinger EP, Bowden DW, Brandslund I, Breen G, Brilliant MH, Broer L, Brumat M, Burt AA, Butterworth AS, Campbell PT, Cappellani S, Carey DJ, Catamo E, Caulfield MJ, Chambers JC, Chasman DI, Chen YDI, Chowdhury R, Christensen C, Chu AY, Cocca M, Collins FS, Cook JP, Corley J, Galbany JC, Cox AJ, Crosslin DS, Cuellar-Partida G, D'Eustacchio A, Danesh J, Davies G, de Bakker PIW, de Groot MCH, de Mutsert R, Deary IJ, Dedoussis G, Demerath EW, den Heijer M, den Hollander AI, den Ruijter HM, Dennis JG, Denny JC, Di Angelantonio E, Drenos F, Du M, Dubé MP, Dunning AM, Easton DF, Edwards TL, Ellinor PT, Elliott P, Evangelou E, Farmaki AE, Farooqi IS, Faul JD, Fauser S, Feng S, Ferrannini E, Ferrieres J, Florez JC, Ford I, Fornage M, Franco OH, Franks PW, Friedrich N, Frikke-Schmidt R, Gan W, Gandin I, Gasparini P, Gibson J, Giedraitis V, Gjesing AP, Gordon-Larsen P, Gorski M, Grabe HJ, Grant SFA, Grarup N, Griffiths HL, Grove ML, Gudnason V, Guo X, Gustafsson S, Haessler J, Hakonarson H, Hammerschlag AR, Hansen T, Harris KM, Harris TB, Hattersley AT, Have CT, Hayward C, He L, Heard-Costa NL, Heath AC, Heid IM, Helgeland Ø, Hernesniemi J, Hewitt AW, Holmen OL, Hovingh GK, Howson JMM, Hu Y, Huang PL, Huffman JE, Ikram MA, Ingelsson E, Jackson AU, Jansson JH, Jarvik GP, Jensen GB, Jia Y, Johansson S, Jørgensen ME, Jørgensen T, Jukema JW, Kahali B, Kahn RS, Kähönen M, Kamstrup PR, Kanoni S, Kaprio J, Karaleftheri M, Kardia SLR, Karpe F, Kathiresan S, Kee F, Kim E, Kitajima H, Kluivers KB, Komulainen P, Kooner JS, Kooperberg C, Korhonen T, Kovacs P, Kuivaniemi H, Kutalik Z, Kuulasmaa K, Kuusisto J, Laaksom M, Lakka TA, Lamparter D, Lange EM, Lange LA, Langenberg C, Larson EB, Lee NR, Lehtimäki T, Lewis CE, Li X, Li J, Li-Gao R, Lin H, Lin KH, Lin LA, Lin X, Lind L, Lindström J, Linneberg A, Liu CT, Liu DJ, Liu Y, Lo KS, Lophatananon A, Lotery AJ, Loukola A, Luan J, Lubitz SA, Lyytikäinen LP, Männistö S, Marenne G, Mazul AL, McCarthy MI, McKean-Cowdin R, Medland SE, Meidtner K, Mihailov E, Milani L, Mistry V, Mitchell P, Mohlke KL, Moilanen L, Moitry M, Montgomery GW, Mook-Kanamori DO, Moore C, Mori TA, Morris AD, Morris AP, Müller-Nurasyid M, Munroe PB, Nalls MA, Narisu N, Nelson CP, Neville M, Nielsen SF, Nikus K, Njølstad PR, Nordestgaard BG, Nyholt DR, O'Connel JR, Loohuis LMO, Ophoff RA, Owen KR, Packard CJ, Padmanabhan S, Palmer CNA, Palmer ND, Pasterkamp G, Patel AP, Pattie A, Pedersen O, Peissig PL, Peloso GM, Pennell CE, Perola M, Perry JA, Perry JRB, Pers TH, Person TN, Peters A, Petersen ERB, Peyser PA, Pirie A, Polasek O, Polderman TJ, Posthuma D, Puolijoki H, Raitakari OT, Rasheed A, Rauramaa R, Reilly DF, Renström F, Rheinberger M, Ridker PM, Rioux JD, Rivas MA, Roberts DJ, Robertson NR, Robino A, Rolandsson O, Rotter JI, Igor Rudan, Ruth KS, Saleheen D, Salomaa V, Samani NJ, Sapkota SY, Sattar N, Schoen RE, Scholte SH, Schreiner PJ, Schulze MB, Scott RA, Segura-Lepe MP, Shah S, Sheu WHH, Sim X, Slater AJ, Small KS, Smith AV, Southam L, Spector TD, Speliotes EK, Starr JM, Stefansson K, Steinthorsdottir V, Stirrups KE, Strauch K, Stringham HM, Stumvoll M, Sun L, Surendran P, Swift AJ, Tada H, Tansey KE, Tardif JC, Taylor KD, Teumer A, Thompson DJ, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Thuesen BH, Tönjes A, Tromp G, Trompet S, Tsafantakis E, Tuomilehto J, Tybjaerg-Hansen A, Tyrer JP, Uher R, Uitterlinden AG, Uusitupa M, van der Laan SW, van Duijn CM, van Leeuwen N, van Setten J, Vanhala M, Varbo A, Varga TV, Varma R, Velez Edwards DR, Vermeulen SH, Veronesi G, Vestergaard H, Vitart V, Vogt TF, Völker U, Vuckovic D, Wagenknecht LE, Walker M, Wallentin L, Wang F, Wang CA, Wang S, Wang Y, Ware EB, Wareham NJ, Warren HR, Waterworth DM, Wessel J, White HD, Willer CJ, Wilson JG, Witte DR, Wood AR, Wu Y, Yaghootkar H, Yao J, Yao P, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Young R, Zeggini E, Zhan X, Zhang W, Zhao JH, Zhao W, Zhao W, Zhou W, Zondervan KT, CHD Exome+ Consortium, EPIC-CVD Consortium, ExomeBP Consortium, Global Lipids Genetic Consortium, GoT2D Genes Consortium, InterAct, INTERVAL Study, ReproGen Consortium, T2D-Genes Consortium, The MAGIC Investigators, Understanding Society Scientific Group, Pospisilik JA, Rivadeneira F, Borecki IB, Deloukas P, Frayling TM, Lettre G, North KE, Lindgren CM, Hirschhorn JN, Loos RJF. Protein-altering variants associated with body mass index implicate pathways that control energy intake and expenditure underpinning obesity. Nat Genet. 2018 Jan;50(1):26-41. doi: 10.1038/s41588-017-0011-x. Epub 2017 Dec 22. PubMed