OBJECTIVES: Overweight and obesity impose a great burden on society. Though advances in obesity therapy can be observed, the long-lasting outcome is dissatisfying. This study aims at the identification of patient-relevant attributes and endpoints in overweight and obesity therapy. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to identify a conceptual map of key attributes and endpoints. METHODS: Literature review (PubMed/Medline), focus groups (N=44) and expert interviews (N=5) were conducted to elicit patient preference over attributes and endpoints. A questionnaire with 124 possible attributes was conducted with N=201 patients. Finally psychometric tests (frequency, factor analysis, reliability tests) were used to verify the relevance and determinacy of the attributes. Repertory grid analysis was used to identify the constructs used by patients to characterize overweight and obesity therapy. Respondents were presented with cards outlining the preference dimensions and asked to rank the most relevant dimensions in order of relevance. RESULTS: The mapping of attributes and endpoints resulted in categories that emerged as relevant spanning from therapy attributes as technical care, access, empowerment and interpersonal care. The factor analysis of the attributes resulted in 8 factors with a KMO of 74.8; chronbachs alpha between 0.878 and 0.552 and a total mean square of 55.416%. The repertory grid and ranking resulted in five patient-relevant endpoints (e.g. functional status, side effects, outcome and risk factors). CONCLUSIONS: The novelty of this analysis is the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to build a conceptual map of patient-centered outcomes that can be used to plan comprehensive assessment of patient preferences in overweight and obesity therapy. The map concludes important attributes and endpoints and makes it possible to sort them in categories and subcategories. Theoretical issues concerning the nature of attributes and their interrelationships are raised and the implications for the measurement of patient preferences are discussed.