Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Globally and in Canada, obesity prevalence is rising at an alarming rate. In 2021 alone, it was estimated that the direct and indirect costs of obesity in Canada included $7.9 billion in healthcare costs and another $3.7 billion in disability costs. When changes to diet and physical activity are just not enough to manage obesity, certain individuals may benefit from metabolic/bariatric surgery (MBS); these surgeries are operations done to the digestive system to reduce food and calories absorbed in a variety of ways. Importantly, in order to maintain overall health and the benefits of MBS, such as weight loss and remission of co-existing medical conditions, patients must engage in healthy behaviours - things like getting enough good quality sleep and physical activity, while also limiting time spent sitting. These behaviours make up the elements of the 24-hour movement paradigm, which has been studied and applied to the general population but has not yet been integrated into MBS research and practice. This grant application describes planning and dissemination activities to start the process of this integration. As preliminary steps, we propose the assembly of a leadership committee who will gather and summarize the available literature on 24-hour movement behaviours in the context of MBS to determine the current level of evidence. Next, the leadership committee will plan and host a hybrid stakeholder meeting in Gatineau, QC (April 2025) to (1) present the evidence, (2) determine future research priorities and next steps, and (3) discuss the formation of a Stakeholder Alliance. Ultimately, the knowledge translation outputs of this meeting will be disseminated (1) through the Obesity Canada website, (2) as a manuscript published open access, and (3) through oral presentations at 2025 obesity and MBS conferences.