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Review
. 2024 Sep;25(9):e13769.
doi: 10.1111/obr.13769. Epub 2024 Jun 3.

Adult obesity treatment and prevention: A trans-agency commentary on the research landscape, gaps, and future opportunities

Rebecca K Hoffman  1 , Laurie Friedman Donze  2 , Tanya Agurs-Collins  3 , Brook Belay  4 , David Berrigan  3 , Heidi M Blanck  4   5 , Andrea Brandau  6 , Amanda Chue  6 , Susan Czajkowski  3 , Glenn Dillon  7 , Lyudmyla Kompaniyets  4 , Bramaramba Kowtha  8 , Rui Li  9 , Priscah Mujuru  10 , Lanay Mudd  11 , Linda Nebeling  3 , Naomi Tomoyasu  12 , Deborah Young-Hyman  13 , Xincheng Ted Zheng  14 , Charlotte Pratt  2
Affiliations
Review

Adult obesity treatment and prevention: A trans-agency commentary on the research landscape, gaps, and future opportunities

Rebecca K Hoffman et al. Obes Rev. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Given the high and growing prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States, obesity treatment and prevention are important topics in biomedical and public health research. Although researchers recognize the significance of this problem, much remains unknown about safe and effective prevention and treatment of obesity in adults. In response to the worsening obesity epidemic and the many unknowns regarding the disease, a group of key scientific and program staff members of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal and non-government agencies gathered virtually in September 2021 to discuss the current state of obesity research, research gaps, and opportunities for future research in adult obesity prevention and treatment. The current article synthesizes presentations given by attendees and shares their organizations' current initiatives and identified gaps and opportunities. By integrating the information discussed in the meeting and current initiatives, we identify potential targets and overlapping priorities for future research, including health equity and disparities in obesity, the heterogeneity of obesity, and the use of technological and innovative approaches in interventions.

Keywords: adult obesity; gaps and opportunities; prevention; treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest as delineated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Word2vecOPA map of all National Institutes of Health (NIH) Investments in Obesity Research. Legend: The number inside each circle indicates the subset of NHLBI Research Project Grant (RPG) awards (FY2016-FY2023; a total of 364 awards) funding the topic indicated by the corresponding AI label (group of computationally extracted terms). Note that topics on the left side of the image are focused on fundamental areas of obesity research (e.g., signal transduction, molecular mechanisms, and physiology), whereas those on the right tend to be more clinically oriented (e.g., cardiovascular risk, diet, and prevention). The “Metabolic diseases” label is grayed out because there were no NHLBI awards on that topic. Thickness of the lines (edges) connecting the circles (nodes) is proportional to the degree of semantic similarity between the topics.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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