Presentation description

Type 2 Diabetes and obesity are prevalent global metabolic diseases, and they disproportionately affect communities that are ethnically diverse or underrepresented. The Utah Obesity Treatment Cohort (UOTC) was started in an effort to tackle the increasing prevalence of these health disparities by focusing on comprehensive research, treatment, and prevention strategies. The UOTC collects data at baseline and up to 24 months post obesity treatment on socioeconomic and demographic factors, diet and physical activity (via validated questionnaires), clinical biomarkers, genetic profiles, and body composition metrics (DEXA and waist circumference).
We used RStudio statistical software to analyze current UOTC participant characteristic information and two year clinical biomarker trajectories following bariatric surgery on 578 participants.
Cohort participants are aged 47±11 years old, on average, with a median weight of 277 lbs and Body Mass Index (BMI) of 44.3kg/m2. The majority of participants were white (N=481, 83.2%), female (N=412, 71.3%), and married (N=310, 53.6%). Following bariatric surgery, a two year trajectory of laboratory clinical biomarker and anthropometric measurements showed promising reduction in A1c, BMI, fasting insulin, LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and weight, along with an increase in HDL cholesterol.
Our data is supportive of pre-established clinical findings that Bariatric surgery is effective in reducing obesity and its related comorbidities, especially in the context of biomarker and anthropometric indices. The Utah Obesity Treatment Cohort provides a comprehensive understanding of the multifactorial influences on weight loss outcomes and metabolic disease preventatives following bariatric surgery. .For future research the data collected by the UOTC could be useful for any researchers interested in obesity and metabolic disease prevention and outcomes. Current efforts are utilizing the UOTC data to study obesity driven cancers such as colorectal cancer via ceramide and sphingolipid metabolism.