Measuring quality of life in bariatric surgery: a multicentre study

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundCurrent studies mainly focus on total weight loss and comorbidity reduction. Only a few studies compare Quality of Life (QoL) after sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). This study was conducted to examine the extent of improvement in QoL on different domains after primary bariatric surgery and compare these results to Dutch reference values.MethodsThe study included prospectively collected data from patients who underwent primary bariatric surgery in five Dutch hospitals. The RAND-36 questionnaire was used to measure the patient’s QoL; preoperatively and twelve months postoperatively. Postoperative scores were compared to Dutch reference values, standardized for age, usingt-test. A difference of more than 5% was considered a minimal important difference. A multivariate linear regression analysis was used to compare SG and RYGB on the extent of improvement, adjusted for case-mix factors.ResultsIn total, 4864 patients completed both the pre- and postoperative questionnaire. Compared with Dutch reference values, patients postoperatively reported clinically relevant betterphysical functioning(RYGB + 6.8%),physical role limitations(SG + 5.6%; RYGB + 6.2%) andhealth change(SG + 77.1%; RYGB + 80.0%), but worsegeneral health perception(SG − 22.8%; RYGB − 17.0%). Improvement in QoL was similar between SG and RYGB, except forphysical functioning(β2.758;p-value 0.008) andgeneral health perception(β2.607;p-value < 0.001) for which RYGB patients improved more.ConclusionsSG and RYGB patients achieved a better postoperative score inphysical functioning,physical role limitationsandhealth change comparedto Dutch reference values, and a worse score ingeneral health perception.