Strategies for Teaching About Physiological Mechanisms of Obesity in Undergraduate Pathophysiology Courses

Abstract

Obesity is often viewed as a consequence of “lack of willpower” or other behavioral choices, rather than a complex array of biological and other factors. Many undergraduates in pre-nursing or biology programs have minimal exposure to the physiology and pathophysiology of obesity, including learning about leptin and other hormones involved in appetite control. Because obesity was not previously explicitly covered as s standalone topic in the pre-nursing pathophysiology course at my institution, I developed materials for teaching about the pathophysiology of obesity. These materials were designed at two different levels for use in two different pathophysiology courses: one, a survey of pathophysiology topics for pre-nursing majors, and the other, an in-depth exploration of the molecular and cellular basis of selected diseases for upper division biology majors. In both courses, a case of human leptin deficiency and the ob/ob mouse model are used to introduce the importance of hormones in appetite control and body weight. In the molecular basis of disease course, obesity is covered as part of a unit organized around metabolic syndrome. The discussion includes molecular and cellular mechanisms that link obesity to several other diseases, including type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Informal feedback from students in the pre-nursing course at the end of the course suggested that students shifted their thinking about obesity from a purely behavioral phenomenon to a more nuanced understanding of obesity as a multifactorial condition. Overall, devoting class time to biological mechanisms of obesity has resulted in increased student understanding of the complex nature of body weight regulation. None. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.