Attitudes towards therapeutic options for weight management, including weight loss medications and surgery, among people living with obesity and healthcare professionals in China: A secondary analysis from the ACTION-China study.

Aims: To identify attitudes towards prescription of weight loss (WL) medications and WL surgery among people living with obesity (PLwO) and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in China.

Materials and methods: This was a secondary analysis of the ACTION-China study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05428501), a cross-sectional, descriptive, survey-based study conducted in mainland China from August to November 2022.

Results: In total, 7000 PLwO and 1000 HCPs completed the survey. Most were concerned about the safety of long-term use of WL medications (73.6% of PLwO and 69.2% of HCPs) and WL surgery (76.7% of PLwO and 76.9% of HCPs). A smaller proportion of PLwO than HCPs (37.4% vs. 60.9%, respectively) thought that WL medications were more effective than other treatments. Similar proportions of PLwO and HCPs (33.4% and 32.4%, respectively) considered surgery to be more effective than other options, but more PLwO than HCPs were concerned about weight regain after WL surgery (64.1% vs. 35.2%, respectively). In total, 39.5% of PLwO thought that society and the healthcare system were slightly (31.8%) or completely (7.7%) meeting their needs, compared with 23.5% (21.1% and 2.4%, respectively) of HCPs. PLwO and HCPs agreed that the most important factor for improving WL outcomes was increasing awareness that obesity is a chronic disease that requires long-term management.

Conclusion: PLwO and HCPs living in mainland China have different attitudes towards WL treatments, particularly regarding treatment effectiveness and weight regain after WL surgery.