Dr Peter Katzmarzyk Addresses Social Determinants of Obesity, Proposes Collaborative Support

Peter Katzmarzyk, PhD, FACSM, FAHA, FTOS, from the Pennington Biomedical Research Centers, participates in an interview about obesity, contributing factors, and supportive steps professionals can take.

Transcript:

You moderated the panel discussion, "Innovations in Obesity Medicine, Treatment of Chronic Disease and Prevention Strategy". What specific insights or innovative approaches discussed during the panel can be directly implemented in clinical practice to address the link between obesity and chronic disease prevention?

We had a lively discussion last night, it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of different perspectives that came out. We had an obesity medicine specialist there who talked to us a little bit about the kind of cutting edge treatments in obesity medicine that became available within the last 5 years. We have very effective medications for obesity. These medications are available both for adults and for children.

In the old days, we used to get 3% to 5% to 6% percent weight loss with effective interventions, lifestyle interventions, and some medications. Now, what we're seeing are 10% to 15% weight loss with these medications.

On top of that, we now have bariatric surgery, which is becoming more popular. In those cases, we get weight losses in excess of 20%. We now have for this disease, called obesity, effective clinical interventions. So that was very exciting to hear.

We also heard that the American Academy of Pediatrics released recently their obesity guidelines and obesity management guidelines for children and adolescents. They're still recommending that the base be behavioral treatment for obesity. In some extreme cases, in adolescents, bringing medications on board, making bariatric surgery an option for extreme cases, is becoming almost a requirement in order to protect these children's health and to protect their lives. That was quite sobering that we're moving in that direction but it's very, very effective, just like any other chronic disease.

The other thing I wanted to mention was, we spent a lot of time talking about food insecurity and its role in obesity and health. There was a lot of discussion around how we can better intervene to improve food security in the population. Of course, this might have a clinical component as well, we understand that in some health care systems, they're now collecting social determinants of health in their electronic medical record. Part of that is food insecurity. If we can identify families with food insecurity, we can then make them aware of community resources, which can help in that regard. It's really bringing social determinants of health into medicine now so that's quite exciting to hear.

In the context of the chronic disease treatment and prevention strategies discussed in the panel, what are the long-term outcomes and patient adherence rates when integrating multidisciplinary approaches, such as collaborative care teams that involve physicians, nutritionists, psychologists, and physical therapists?

Now, I think we're becoming more aware of the need for these teams to manage complex cases. So not just the psychologists and exercise physiologists but also bringing in social workers now. That can help address what is going on in the lives of these children and in the lives of adults because in many ways, the underlying stresses that people feel in their everyday life contribute to disease management. This recognition that we need teams of individuals, not just a single primary care practitioner, is really changing the way we think about medicine and the way we can help people in the future.