Dr Grace O’Malley from RCSI’s Obesity Research and Care Group has spearheaded RCSI’s participation in a World Health Organisation (WHO) visit to Ireland which examines the implementation of Ireland’s Obesity Model of Care and builds on the WHO framework for improving obesity care.

Dr O’Malley, who is a Senior Lecturer in RCSI’s School of Physiotherapy and Clinical Lead in the Healthy Living Service at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), welcomed the WHO delegation to CHI’s service for complex obesity in children and young people. The WHO delegation was in Ireland as part of a WHO Demonstration Platform hosted by Ireland’s Department of Health.

Obesity is a critical global health challenge with severe implications for individuals and health systems. From 1990 to 2022, obesity rates among children and adolescents aged 5-19 years quadrupled from 2% to 8%, while adult obesity more than doubled from 7% to 16%. This rise contributes to the surge in other noncommunicable diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The WHO visit to CHI highlighted the crucial role of multidisciplinary teams in delivering evidence-based paediatric obesity treatment, showcasing the CHI service’s key contribution to clinical care for vulnerable children and adolescents and describing the RCSI-led research aimed at understanding how to develop effective obesity care services for children and young people.

The delegation also learned about the service's efforts in training healthcare professionals in obesity management across Ireland, as well as its support for evidence-based service improvements and the integration of care throughout the healthcare system.

Mandatory training

RCSI is the first university in Ireland to introduce mandatory obesity training for undergraduate medicine and physiotherapy students. Since 2022, RCSI has delivered paediatric obesity training to more than 3,000 current and future healthcare professionals with over 8,000 hours of training completed to date. The training programme was developed initially as a Slaintecare initiative and receives funding annually from the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive.

This training aligns with the university's commitment to inter-professional education which helps prepare our students to deliver excellence in patient care in a multi-disciplinary environment, and with its dedication to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 – good health and well-being.

The LANDSCAPE Project, co-led by Dr Grace O’Malley (RCSI School of Physiotherapy) and Sarah O’Brien (HSE), explores how designated services for child and adolescent obesity should be implemented in collaboration with professionals, healthcare managers and families as expert stakeholders. The project was part of an Applied Partnership Award, co-funded by the Health Research Board (HRB) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) Health and Wellbeing Division.

Obesity care services

Commenting on the WHO study visit, Dr O’Malley said: “I am delighted to have had the opportunity to showcase the excellent work undertaken by our teams in CHI and RCSI to promote multi-disciplinary evidence-based care for children and young people living with obesity. Our goal is to translate research and policy into action so that we can build capacity throughout the health service and ensure children’s rights are adhered to, specifically their right to access healthcare and treatment for obesity.

“The health and social impacts of childhood obesity threaten the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3.4, which aims to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases. In addition to preventing obesity, health services across the globe need to address obesity treatment. Ireland's Obesity Model of Care for the Management of Overweight and Obesity serves as a world-leading example of how to plan obesity care services to address secondary prevention, tertiary prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.”

The visit of the WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care included delegations from Turkey, Slovenia, Slovakia, Portugal and Spain. Ireland was chosen to host this visit due to its exemplary model for integrated obesity care. This model, currently being implemented, serves as a valuable case study for countries seeking to strengthen their obesity management systems. The visit was aimed at supporting WHO European Region countries in aligning their efforts with the global acceleration plan to stop obesity, helping them meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 - good health and well-being.

Learn more about RCSI’s Obesity Research and Care Group here.