Health-related quality of life does not vary among patients seeking different surgical procedures to assist with weight loss

BackgroundImprovement in quality of life (QOL) is 1 of the goals of bariatric procedures. We hypothesized that greater impairment of QOL would encourage the choice of more invasive surgical procedures. Our study was performed at a university hospital weight loss surgical center in the United States.MethodsPatients qualifying for weight loss surgery, who at their surgical consultation had chosen their surgical option and signed an informed consent form, were asked to complete 3 QOL forms—the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36-item Health Survey, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite. Analysis of variance was used to compare the surgery types with the demographics, QOL, and depression.ResultsA total of 367 patients, 114 men (31.1%) and 253 women (68.75), completed the QOL forms at their surgical consultation. Of these 367 patients, 68.9% elected gastric bypass (GB), 15% chose biliopancreatic diversion/duodenal switch (BPD/DS), and 16.1% chose adjustable gastric banding (AGB). The mean patient age was 42.5 ± 10.7 years (P = NS), with no differences in gender distribution. The body mass index was 51.9 kg/m² for the BPD/DS group, greater than that for the GB group (45.9 kg/m²) or AGB group (44.3 kg/m²; P < .0001). No significant differences were found in the Beck Depression Inventory score among the 3 groups (GB 14.6 ± 9.6, AGB 10.8 ± 8.2, and BPD/DS 13.5 ± 7.3). For the Short Form 36-item Health Survey, only the physical component score was different for the AGB group compared with the BPD/DS group (GB 49.2 ± 25.1, BPD/DS 42.8 ± 26.4, and AGB 52.3 ± 31.7; P = .05). For the Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite, all differences were nonsignificant. The total score was 44.1 ± 20.7, 44.4 ± 21.1, and 52.2 ± 19.6 for the GB, BPD/DS, and AGB groups, respectively.ConclusionPatients requesting a weight loss procedure reported moderate to severe impairments in QOL and mood dysphoria compared with the community norms. However, the patients choosing from the 3 procedures studied scored similarly on the health-related QOL assessments.