Elsevier

Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases

Volume 6, Issue 6, November–December 2010, Pages 608-614
Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases

Original article
Changes in quality of life and body image after gastric bypass surgery

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soard.2010.07.015Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Improvements in psychosocial status are an important aspect of successful outcomes after bariatric surgery. Relatively few studies have investigated the changes in psychosocial functioning at a number of points in the first few postoperative years. The present study was undertaken to assess the changes in quality of life and body image after gastric bypass surgery. The present study was performed at an academic medical center.

Methods

A total of 200 men and women were enrolled in the study and completed psychometric measures of quality of life and body image before surgery and again 20, 40, and 92 weeks postoperatively.

Results

The participants reported significant improvements in several domains of health- and weight-related quality of life, as well as changes in body image, after surgery. These changes were correlated with the percentage of weight loss.

Conclusion

Those who undergo gastric bypass surgery experienced significant improvements in quality of life and body image within the first few months after surgery. These changes were, with few exceptions, maintained into the second postoperative year.

Section snippets

Participants

The study participants included 200 patients who had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from November 2001 to June 2004. We previously reported on the eating behaviors of these patients [4]. The institutional review board of the University of Pennsylvania approved the present study, and all participants provided informed consent before study entry.

Measures

Approximately 4 weeks before surgery, the participants completed a psychosocial/behavioral

Participant characteristics

The demographic and descriptive variables were presented our previous report [4]. They have been summarized in the present report. In brief, the entire sample had a mean preoperative age of 42.6 ± 9.9 years, weight of 146.9 ± 32.3 kg, height of 167.6 ± 9.4 cm, and body mass index of 51.4 ± 9.0 kg/m2. Of the 200 participants, 164 were women. Approximately 87% of all participants were European-American, 9% were African-American, and the remainder were of other ethnic origin. The participants

Discussion

Gastric bypass patients reported significant improvements in several domains of quality of life within the first few months of surgery. Health-related and weight-related quality of life were well maintained through the second postoperative year and, in many cases, were associated with changes in weight. This replicates the recent findings from Kolotkin et al. [11], who also found that after a weight loss of 34.2% after gastric bypass surgery, the patients experienced significant improvements in

Disclosures

Dr. Sarwer has consulting relationships with Allergan, BaroNova, Enteromedics, and Ethicon Endo-Surgery.

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    Supported in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant K23-DK60023) to D.B. Sarwer.

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