Evaluation of gastric bypass patients 1 year after surgery: changes in quality of life and obesity-related conditions.

Background: Obesity has recently been cited as the number one killer in the USA. This problem is both a national and regional epidemic. The health care costs of obesity and obesity-related illnesses are ever increasing, and gastric bypass surgery is becoming a popular treatment strategy. Recently, reports describe not only surgical outcomes, but also quality of life outcomes. The bigger issue of obesity-related illness resolution is still evolving. Our institution has performed well over 500 gastric bypasses since 2002. We evaluated over 100 patients prior to and 1 year after gastric bypass surgery.
Methods: A prospective study was designed in order to systematically examine quality of life in gastric bypass patients and couple the results with both objective and subjective assessment of bariatric surgery outcomes. One hundred nineteen patients undergoing gastric bypass at our institution from January 2005 to December of 2005 were enrolled in the study. In addition to routine preprocedural and postprocedural follow-up, completion of quality of life forms and anthropometric measurements were performed. Using these data, we then correlated the change in quality of life scores with social factors, weight loss success, and status of obesity-related conditions. We also examined the impact of alcohol intake and other demographic factors on both quality of life and obesity related conditions.
Results: A total of 119 patients were enrolled in the study during the calendar year 2005. Follow-up at approximately 1 year (average 12.86 months) postsurgery was obtained in 75 patients. A significant reduction in weight (144.4+/-34.4 vs. 91.5+/-28.8; p<0.0001), body mass index (52.4+/-12.2 vs. 32.3+/-8.6; p<0.0001), mean systolic blood pressure (140.4+/-14.7 vs. 130.0+/-21.7; p<0.001), and lipids (194.3+/-33.8 vs. 165.7+/-32.1; p<0.0001) was noted. Quality of life scores 1 year after gastric bypass surgery were also significantly improved (35.9+/-19.5 vs. 82.2+/-23.5; p<0.0001). There was also a significant reduction in the reported usage of medications for obesity related conditions. Various measures of success (change in BMI, change in quality of life scores, and follow up health ranking) were compared across demographic and social factors and no significant associations were identified.
Conclusions: Gastric bypass is associated with a reduction in weight, BMI, mean systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, and the usage of medications for obesity-related conditions. A significant improvement in quality of life was also noted 1 year after surgery.