Patient-Oriented Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Obesity in Adults

Like many other chronic diseases, obesity is a manageable disease. More than 10 years after the release of the first Canadian obesity guidelines, there remains a gap in access to obesity care in Canada. Obesity management has evolved and there is now a general acceptance that obesity care should be individually tailored to patients' needs using inter-professional approaches. Simplistic obesity interventions and approaches are not enough. Patients living with obesity expect primary care professionals to assess and address the root causes of their obesity rather than giving simplistic advice to "eat less, move more". There is a need to update the Canadian clinical practice guidelines to ensure they reflect current management strategies and incorporate emerging obesity care principles such as patient-centeredness and inter-professional approaches. Our specific objective is to update and revise Canadian clinical practice guidelines for the management of obesity in adults using an innovative approach rooted in sound scientific evidence, expert consensus, and patient engagement. The primary audience of the obesity clinical practice guidelines will be health care professionals, people living with obesity and health care decision makers. The development of these new clinical practice guidelines will engage people living with obesity throughout the entire process. We will use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence to decision framework to produce these guidelines. The guidelines will be developed into sharable formats for specific target audiences such as healthcare professionals, healthcare policy makers, and patients affected by obesity. The Canadian Obesity Network and the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons will work collaboratively to develop and implement capacity building activities that will facilitate the adoption and implementation of the guidelines.