Barriers to accessing weight-loss interventions for patients with class II or III obesity in primary care: a qualitative study.

Background: Over 1 million Canadians have class II or III obesity; however, access to weight-loss interventions for these patients remains limited. The purpose of our study was to identify the barriers to accessing medical and surgical weight-loss interventions from the perspectives of 3 groups: family physicians, patients who were referred for weight-loss intervention and patients who were not referred for weight-loss intervention.

Methods: Between November 2017 and May 2018, we conducted a qualitative exploratory research study using focus groups with family physicians and interviews with patients with class II or III obesity from 1 region in southern Ontario.