An Alarmingly High Number of Candidates for Bariatric Procedures among Professionally Active Poles and Its Strong Relationship with Cardiovascular Co-Morbidities—POL-O-CARIA 2022 Study

Abstract

Over recent years, the global healthcare system has experienced a notable increase in the prevalence of obesity and its associated health complications such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders, etc. What is more, one of the significant phenomena is the increasing demand for bariatric procedures among individuals of working age due to the high prevalence of type III obesity and type II obesity with co-morbidities. This trend is pronounced in Poland, due to the increasing number of patients meeting the qualifying criteria for surgery among professionally active and inactive patients. The aim of this study is to characterize the alarmingly high number of candidates for bariatric procedures among professionally active Poles. In total, the results of 2,056,861 initial, control, and periodic visits as part of the occupational medicine certificate were analyzed—collected from 1,342,749 unique patients (51.7% men; mean age of whole group: 36.81, SD = 10.91). Statistical calculations were performed, qualitative data were assessed using percentage and occurrence counts, while qualitative data were described using mean (M), standard deviation (SD), median, skewness, kurtosis, and range values. Results with p < 0.05 were deemed significant. Chi-square analysis and one-way ANOVA (with Scheffe’s post hoc test) were employed. Charts were created in the R program. It was noticed that there was a consistent rise in the proportion of individuals classified as candidates for bariatric procedures (an increase of 0.3%) alongside a notable decrease in the percentage of individuals maintaining a healthy body weight. Moreover, it is imperative to conduct yearly evaluations of the prevalence of obesity and its associated health conditions. It should be noted that hypertension occurred in 42.2% of patients, type 2 diabetes in 6.2% of patients, and lipid disorders in 8.4% of patients with third-degree obesity. This proactive approach is essential in order to adequately equip the healthcare system to address the increasing population of obese individuals, especially candidates for bariatric procedures.