Developing tools to support patients and healthcare providers when in conversation about obesity

Abstract

People living with obesity suffer from multiple health issues, including diabetes and mental health problems. Misinformation about the complex nature of this condition greatly affects the way one manages obesity. This results in unrealistic expectations by both healthcare providers and patients. Effective obesity management must be individually tailored for each patient. The objective of this project was to improve four communication tools by co-designing them with patients. A co-design approach was used to improve the efficacy and applicability of the tools through a working collaboration between patients, care providers, and researchers. While most articles describe processes to create shared-decision making (SDM) tools which compare alternative diagnosis and treatment options, few papers describe models to create SDM tools which go beyond showing benefits and risks. In this paper, we describe our process and approach to the re-design of four of the 5As obesity tools. We hope this study provides a valuable model for other teams.