J Korean Surg Soc.  2013 Mar;84(3):131-139.

The improvement of quality of life in patients treated with bariatric surgery in Korea

• Oh SH
• Song HJ
• Kwon JW
• Park DJ
• Lee YJ
• Chun H
• Kim S
• Shim KW

Abstract

PURPOSE
Bariatric surgery is considered an efficient treatment for severe obesity, but postoperative complications and psychosocial problems may impact quality of life (QoL). Although QoL is an important aspect of bariatric surgery, few studies have evaluated the changes in QoL. We examined whether severely obese patients who had undergone bariatric surgery had better QoL compared with severely obese adults who had not undergone bariatric surgery in Korea.
METHODS
Data were obtained from 78 participants in two groups; bariatric surgery group (n = 53) and nonsurgery group (n = 25). EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D), the impact of weight on quality of life-lite (IWQoL-lite) and the obesity-related psychosocial problem scale (OP-scale) were used to assess the improvement of QoL.
RESULTS
A total of 78 patients completed the QoL forms as part of their surgical consultation. In the EQ-5D, the changes of EQ-5D 3 level and EQ-5D visual analogue scale in the surgery group was 0.174 and 24.6 versus 0.017 and 17.8 in the nonsurgery group (P = 0.197 and P = 0.179). The changes of IWQoL-lite and OP-scale were significantly improved after bariatric surgery. In the IWQoL-lite, the mean changes in the surgery group was 33.4 versus 14.3 points in the nonsurgery group (P = 0.000). In the OP-scale, the mean changes in the surgery group patients scored 39.3 versus 9.0 points in the nonsurgery group (P = 0.000).
CONCLUSION
We demonstrated significant improvement of QoL observed after bariatric surgery compared to nonsurgical procedure. The results of this comparative study favor bariatric surgery for the treatment of severe obesity.

Keyword

Bariatric surgery; Obesity; Quality of life

MeSH Terms

Adult
Bariatric Surgery
Humans
Korea
Obesity
Postoperative Complications
Quality of Life

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Relationship between % weight change and the score change of each quality of life (QoL) questionnaire. Correlation P-value (A) 0.115 in surgery group, 0.097 in nonsurgery group. (B) 0.156 in surgery group, 0.543 in nonsurgery group. (C) 0.025 in surgery group, 0.102 in nonsurgery group. (D) 0.090 in surgery group, 0.188 in nonsurgery group. EQ-5D 3, EuroQoL-5D 3 level; EQ-5D VAS, EQ-5D visual analogue scale; IWQoL-lite, impact of weight on quality of life-lite; OP-scale, obesity-related psychosocial problem scale.

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