Obesity Surgery | 2021
Adherence to Post-operative Appointments Is Associated with Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery
Abstract
Patients who underwent a pre-surgical psychological evaluation were entered into a database and were included in this study if they underwent bariatric surgery. Participants (N = 210) included patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass at a major metropolitan hospital system between 2016 and 2018. Retrospective chart review was used to collect demographic information, history of adherence to medical appointments, and weight loss outcomes. Adherence to medical appointments was examined in two ways: (1) pre-operatively as percentage of completed, canceled, and “no-showed” (i.e., missed) healthcare appointments during the two years prior to bariatric surgery, and (2) post-operatively as percentage of completed, canceled, and no-showed bariatric appointments in the first year after bariatric surgery. Post-operative bariatric appointments were routinely scheduled for all patients 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year after surgery. Weight loss outcomes included change in BMI (ΔBMI), percent total weight loss (%TWL), and percent excess weight loss (%EWL). These weight outcome measures are consistent with standardized outcomes reporting in bariatric surgery [1] and were calculated using patients’ pre-operative weight recorded at their surgical consultation appointment and post-operative weight recorded at their 1-year follow-up appointment. For patients who did not attend their 1-year follow-up appointment, their electronic medical record was reviewed to obtain their weight within 3 months of their 1-year post-surgery date. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from the health system, and informed consent was waived due to the retrospective methodology.