Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Obesity has become more prevalent in Canada over the past 20 years. Obesity is a chronic disease associated with other cardiovascular and metabolic diseases that increase health risk. Weight losses of 5-10% of total body weight have been associated with reduced health risk in individuals with obesity. Liraglutide and semaglutide are the newest approved weight loss medications in Canada. These medications have been associated with weight losses of 8-15%, which is more than what is seen with diet and exercise alone, or with older weight loss medications. Real life use of weight loss medication may differ from what is seen in research studies due to the high cost of medications and the lack of insurance coverage. Discontinuation rates for the older obesity management medications are higher than what is seen with other chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Thus, the weight loss for people taking the obesity medications may be less than what has been observed in clinical trials if people discontinue taking the medications, particularly for the newer medications which are more expensive. This project will investigate trends in weight loss medication prescriptions in weight management patients, and weight changes in patients who were prescribed newer versus older weight loss medications. The study will use a sample of 22,905 Wharton Medical Clinic - Weight Management patients (2007-2020) who agreed to share their data for research purposes. Sex, obesity class, and age differences will be considered in the analyses. The study will provide insight to the effectiveness of obesity medications in a country with poor to no coverage for these medications, despite the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease in Canada in 2015.