Health Beliefs and Obesity Bias as Determinants of Attitudes Toward the Rising Tides of GLP-1 Medications: Mounjaro and Ozempic
Kholoud Al-Mahzoum,1 Doaa H Abdelaziz,2,3 Fajer Alenezi,4 Jouza Almutairi,4 Mohammad Khaled Alsubaiei,4 Abdullah Bader Alharbi,4 Sarah Al-Rawi,4 Shahad Al-Rawi,4 Fatemah Faisal Bousheheri,4 Ahmad Hameed Alhajri,4 Saif Nasser Alajmi,4 Mohammed Sallam,5 Noha O Mansour,6 Eman Khamis Alnazly,7,8 Malik S...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Dove Medical Press
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.dovepress.com/health-beliefs-and-obesity-bias-as-determinants-of-attitudes-toward-th-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-DMSO |
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| Summary: | Kholoud Al-Mahzoum,1 Doaa H Abdelaziz,2,3 Fajer Alenezi,4 Jouza Almutairi,4 Mohammad Khaled Alsubaiei,4 Abdullah Bader Alharbi,4 Sarah Al-Rawi,4 Shahad Al-Rawi,4 Fatemah Faisal Bousheheri,4 Ahmad Hameed Alhajri,4 Saif Nasser Alajmi,4 Mohammed Sallam,5 Noha O Mansour,6 Eman Khamis Alnazly,7,8 Malik Sallam9– 11 1Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kuwait City, Kuwait; 2Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt; 4School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 5Department of Pharmacy, Mediclinic Parkview Hospital, Mediclinic Middle East, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 6Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt; 7Department of Primary Care Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan; 8Hourani Center for Applied Scientific Research, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan; 9Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 10Department of Clinical Laboratories and Forensic Medicine, Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan; 11Department of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, SwedenCorrespondence: Malik Sallam, Email malik.sallam@ju.edu.joIntroduction: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists including Mounjaro and Ozempic, are increasingly used for weight management. Assessing the attitudes and beliefs of current and future healthcare professionals is important considering their roles in recommending and prescribing these drugs. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes toward Mounjaro and Ozempic and its correlation with obesity/overweight bias among healthcare professionals and students in medicine and pharmacy in Arab countries.Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on a self-administered online questionnaire with participants recruited via a convenient snowball sampling approach. Attitudes towards Mounjaro and Ozempic were evaluated using a newly developed construct termed Mini Health Beliefs and Attitudes toward GLP-1 Drugs Scale (mini-HBAGS), alongside a novel scale to assess obesity/overweight bias (OOB). The new constructs’ validity was assessed via content validity, principal component analysis (PCA), and Cronbach’s α.Results: The study included 413 participants predominantly from Kuwait (32.8%), Egypt (20.9%), Saudi Arabia (18.8%), and Jordan (15.4%). Familiarity with Mounjaro and Ozempic was high (83.6%), with 17.2% recommending them. Weight management drug use was 14.0%, including 5.9% for Mounjaro and Ozempic. Among participants familiar with Mounjaro and Ozempic, the mean OOB score was 3.83± 0.62 (range: 1.00– 5.00), indicating agreement, while the mean score for the mini-H-BAGS was 2.70± 0.716 (range: 1.00– 5.00), indicating a slightly unfavorable attitude. PCA identified perceived benefits and barriers, and subjective norms and attitudes, as key determinants of attitudes toward Mounjaro and Ozempic.Conclusion: This study revealed slightly negative attitudes toward Mounjaro and Ozempic among healthcare professionals and students in Arab countries. The negative attitudes observed likely reflect concerns about side effects, cost, and accessibility of these medications. The findings highlighted the need for targeted education in Arab countries to address obesity bias and encourage a balanced evaluation of the benefits and risks of GLP-1 drugs for weight management.Keywords: obesity BIAs, GLP-1 medications, mounjaro, ozempic, health beliefs, weight management, pharmacological interventions |
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| ISSN: | 1178-7007 |