Shared Decision Making and Choice for Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

The number of people undergoing bariatric surgery is increasing every year, and their expectations for surgery often differ greatly. The purpose of this study was to develop a patient-centered decision-making aid to help people define their weight loss goals and assist them in discussing their surgical treatment with surgeons. Before the operation, the patients were asked to read the shared decision-making text and conduct a self-assessment. After the operation, we evaluated the program using survey questionnaires. A total of 103 patients were formally included in this study. The results show that patients were very satisfied with the use of patient decision aids (PDAs), with a score of 4.3 points (±0.6), and the postoperative decision-making satisfaction was also very high, at 4.4 points (±0.5), while the postoperative regret score was low, at 1.6 points (±0.6). Their satisfaction with surgical decision making and decision regret were statistically significantly negatively correlated (r = −0.711, p < 0.001). The experience of using PDAs was statistically significantly negatively correlated with decision regret (r = −0.451, p < 0.001); the experience of PDA use was statistically positively correlated with decision satisfaction (r = 0.522, p < 0.001). Patient decision aids are a means of helping patients make informed choices before they seek to undergo bariatric surgery.