Patient perspectives on personalised medicine for obesity: An IMI2 SOPHIA Study.

OBJECTIVE: Personalised medicine is seen as an exciting opportunity to improve the health outcomes of people with obesity. As research on phenotyping and personalised treatment for obesity rapidly advances, this study sought to understand patient preferences and perspectives on personalised medicine for obesity. METHODS: A participatory world café methodology was used to garner the perspectives of people living with obesity on the potential opportunities and limitations associated with a personalised approach to obesity risk identification and treatment. Data were recorded by participants on tablemats and analysed thematically using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Patients expressed the hope that personalised medicine for obesity would reduce stigma, support understanding of obesity as a disease, and improve treatment outcomes and acceptance. They also expressed concern about the accuracy of personalised medicine for obesity, its implications for insurance and that further advances in individual, personalised medicine, would detract attention from social, environmental, economic and psychological drivers of obesity. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights how patients are generally very optimistic about the potential for personalised obesity medicine but also raise a number of legitimate concerns that will be of interest to clinicians, industry, and policy makers.

"Treated as second class citizens" - the lived experience of obesity-related stigma: an IMI2 SOPHIA study.

PURPOSE: Obesity-related stigma impacts on and shapes the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of individuals living with obesity. Often absent from the literature in the field is the voice(s) of those living with obesity capturing the nuances of the lived experiences of obesity-related stigma. METHODS: This study adopted a qualitative approach encompassing individual (n = 15) and photovoice method (n = 12), with a purposeful sample of patients accessing treatment for obesity within the healthcare setting during 2021. Analysis was undertaken using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Key themes developed from the analysis related to experiencing obesity-related stigma as exposure to external judgement, societal exclusion and felt environmental stigmatization. Exposure to external judgement was described as judgemental comments resulting in hypervigilance to societal judgement. Participants reported how being overlooked and ignored by others had various negative effects and compounded obesity-related stigma through societal exclusion. Public spaces lacking suitable equipment further made obesity-related stigma visible through felt environmental stigmatization when pursuing hobbies and in everyday life. CONCLUSIONS: Obesity-related stigma had a profoundly negative impact on participants in this study, particularly in shaping social interaction, limiting life experiences and impacting psychosocial wellbeing.