“Obesity is the number-one health problem in the United States because it negatively affects our population’s health more than any other condition,” said Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute senior investigator David Arterburn, MD, MPH. Kaiser Permanente Washington researchers are doing practical research to learn how doctors, patients, families, employers, and policymakers can best work together to prevent and treat obesity.
“We’re focusing on three ways to halt the obesity epidemic,” said associate investigator Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH. “We’re helping to change obesity-promoting environments, bringing evidence-based prevention and treatment programs into health care systems, and helping people develop lifelong healthy diet and activity habits.”
Kaiser Permanente Washington obesity research areas include:
“Obesity is caused by many factors, so at Kaiser Permanente Washington, we’re working on many levels,” said Paula Lozano, MD, MPH, a senior investigator and Kaiser Permanente Washington’s assistant medical director for preventive care. “We’re improving health care to help people who are obese now. But since obesity is a societal problem, we’re also studying how to change our homes and workplaces and neighborhoods to create more healthy environments.”
Mooney SJ, Bobb JF, Hurvitz PM, Anau J, Theis MK, Drewnowski A, Aggarwal A, Gupta S, Rosenberg DE, Cook AJ, Shi X, Lozano P, Moudon AV, Arterburn D. Impact of built environments on body weight (the Moving to Health study): protocol for a retrospective longitudinal observational study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 May 19;9(5):e16787. doi: 10.2196/16787. PubMed
Klasnja P, Rosenberg D, Zhou J, Anau J, Gupta A, Arterburn DA. A quality-improvement optimization pilot of BariFit, a mobile health intervention to promote physical activity after bariatric surgery. Transl Behav Med. 2020 May 18. pii: ibaa040. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibaa040. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Rubino F, Cohen RV, Mingrone G, le Roux CW, Mechanick JI, Arterburn DE, Vidal J, Alberti G, Amiel SA, Batterham RL, Bornstein S, Chamseddine G, Del Prato S, Dixon JB, Eckel RH, Hopkins D, McGowan BM, Pan A, Patel A, Pattou F, Schauer PR, Zimmet PZ, Cummings DE. Bariatric and metabolic surgery during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: DSS recommendations for management of surgical candidates and postoperative patients and prioritisation of access to surgery. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020 Jul;8(7):640-648. doi: 10.1016/S2213-8587(20)30157-1. Epub 2020 May 7. PubMed
Coleman KJ, Fischer H, Arterburn DE, Barthold D, Barton LJ, Basu A, Courcoulas A, Crawford CL, Fedorka P, Kim B, Mun E, Murali S, Reynolds K, Suh K, Wei R, Yoon TK, Zane R. Effectiveness of gastric bypass versus gastric sleeve for cardiovascular disease: protocol and baseline results for a comparative effectiveness study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2020;9(4):e14936. doi: 10.2196/14936. PubMed
Arterburn DE, Johnson E, Coleman KJ, Herrinton LJ, Courcoulas AP, Fisher D, Li RA, Theis MK, Liu L, Fraser JR, Haneuse S. Weight outcomes of sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass compared to nonsurgical treatment. Ann Surg. 2020 Mar 13. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000003826. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
![]() David E. Arterburn, MD, MPHSenior Investigator, KPWHRI; Physician, Washington Permanente Medical Group, Internal Medicine |
![]() Paula Lozano, MD, MPHSenior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute; |
![]() Allen Cheadle, PhDSenior Research Associate, Center for Community Health & Evaluation; Senior Investigator, KPWHRI |
![]() Dori E. Rosenberg, PhD, MPHAssociate Investigator |
![]() Gregory E. Simon, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
![]() Andrea J. Cook, PhDSenior Investigator |
![]() Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
![]() Maricela Cruz, PhDAssistant Investigator |