Research

Adherence

Inpatient initiation of obesity-targeted therapies (GLP-1 agonists, referrals) for Class 2 and 3 obesity is currently rare and represents a significant gap in care, despite high recognition rates.

If you have Class 2 or 3 obesity, your hospitalization is a critical window for treatment. Doctors often recognize the diagnosis but fail to prescribe medication or refer you to weight management clinics. You must proactively ask for a referral to a weight management clinic or a prescription for weight management medication (like GLP-1 agonists) before discharge to ensure continuity of care.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
We observed that hospitalists documented the presence of obesity in over 60% of patients, yet rarely implemented targeted treatment on discharge. Our results suggest a gap exists between awareness of obesity and subsequent intervention.
Mita Shah Hoppenfeld et al. · Journal of Brown Hospital Medicine · 2024

Why this rating

Retrospective cohort study at a single academic center; observational data on documentation and prescription rates, not a randomized trial of the intervention itself.

Source

Hospitalist Recognition and Treatment of Obesity in Inpatients: A Quality Improvement Cohort Study

Mita Shah Hoppenfeld et al. · Journal of Brown Hospital Medicine · 2024

DOI 10.56305/001c.94545

cohort · n=1531
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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