Joint TOS/OMA/OAC Expert Guidance Statement on the Pharmacological Management of United States Adults With Overweight or Obesity Using the GRADE Approach
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity affects over 40% of US adults, with severe obesity on the rise. Despite recognition of obesity as a chronic disease, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. Access to evidence-based obesity treatment is limited, leading to increased obesity severity and related complications. Barriers to obesity treatment include socioeconomic disparities, limited clinician training, stigma, and restrictive or absent reimbursement policies. FDA-approved obesity medications offer significant health benefits, prompting the need for updated, evidence-based guidance.
METHODS: The Obesity Society (TOS), the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA), and the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) convened a multidisciplinary panel, including patient representatives and obesity care providers, to develop a guidance statement using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Systematic evidence synthesis was conducted via Epistemonikos databases, with outcomes prioritized for clinical relevance, including weight reduction, quality of life, adverse events, and improvements in obesity complications. Recommendations were developed through consensus workshops and graded as strong or conditional based on evidence certainty, benefits, harms, equity, and feasibility using the GRADE Evidence-to-Decision framework.
RESULTS: The panel issued recommendations on FDA-approved obesity medications including orlistat, bupropion-naltrexone, phentermine,…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.