For many people living with type 2 diabetes, being supported to lose weight can result in better management of their diabetes and for some, significant weight loss can result in their type 2 diabetes going into remission.
Despite the number of weight management support options for people with type 2 diabetes being greater than ever before, we know that many people are receiving little or no help with managing their weight. To underpin our understanding of the barriers to accessing weight management services we commissioned and conducted a number of insight projects examining different aspects of weight management services for people with type 2 diabetes. These insights included:
- GP and local health commissioner attitudes towards bariatric surgery
- Barriers to access from the perspective of NHS healthcare professionals working in specialist weight management services
- A survey and focus groups with people living with type 2 diabetes about their experiences of weight management services to support the rollout of NHS England’s Path to Remission programme
This research highlighted that there is patchy availability and lack of oversight to weight management services and that stigmatising attitudes from healthcare professionals can present a barrier to accessing services for people with type 2 diabetes.
What people with type 2 diabetes told us about weight management support
In 2022 and 2023 we conducted further focus groups with people living with type 2 diabetes to hear about experiences, barriers, and enablers for accessing weight management support. These were supplemented by commissioned interviews with people with type 2 diabetes from South Asian backgrounds by Magenta Research.
The aims of this project were to examine the experiences of people living with type 2 diabetes in accessing weight management information and services. Factors which served to either support or hinder weight management efforts were of particular interest, whether they be related to attitudes, perceptions or previous experiences.
Our findings
Analysis of the focus groups and interviews identified a range of key themes which impacted the participants and their ability of achieve weight loss whether on an individual basis, via private support or NHS provided services. The themes are broken down by:
- Lack of information provided - people with type 2 diabetes are consistently not provided with helpful information from healthcare professionals and are find conflicting sources of advice online.
- Stigma – stigmatising exchanges from both interactions with healthcare professionals and in wider society have a detrimental effect on weight management.
- Access to services – most people with type 2 diabetes are not referred to weight management services.
- Variation in support available – many felt let down by their GPs and would change if able to, few are aware or able to access tier 3 level services.
- Person centred support vital – for weight management support to be successful it needs to be tailored to the individual, providing long term follow up and psychological support.
Read the full report from the research with people with type 2 diabetes here.
What we are calling for?
We are calling for everyone who could benefit to be able to access effective weight management interventions in order to prevent, manage, or go into remission from type 2 diabetes (where possible). This means ensuring that weight management services are person centred, stigma free, and provide ongoing support and that psychological support is available as an important component of that support.
For more details on our calls for Government and health systems on how support for weight management needs to be improved see our position statement here.
