Psychological functioning and well-being before and after bariatric surgery; what is the benefit of being self-compassionate?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE\nTo investigate whether patients psychological well-being (depression, quality of life, body image satisfaction) and functioning (self-efficacy for eating and exercising behaviours and food cravings) improve 12\xa0months after bariatric surgery and whether self-compassion is associated with better psychological outcomes and lower weight after bariatric surgery.\n\n\nDESIGN\nLongitudinal, prospective observational study.\n\n\nMETHODS\nBariatric patients (n\xa0=\xa0126, 77.8% female, 46.4\xa0±\xa010.8\xa0years) completed the Self-compassion Scale, Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale, Impact of Weight on Quality-of-Life questionnaire, Body Image Scale, Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire, Spinal Cord Injury Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, and G-Food Craving Questionnaire pre-operatively and 12\xa0months post-operatively. A medical professional measured patients weight during each assessment. Data were analysed using repeated measures t-tests and multivariate regression analyses with Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple testing.\n\n\nRESULTS\nPatients BMI, depression, and food cravings decreased significantly after surgery while quality of life, body image satisfaction, and self-efficacy to exercise improved. Higher self-compassion was associated with lower post-operative depression, greater quality of life, higher body image satisfaction, and better self-efficacy for eating behaviours (p-values <.05) but not with post-operative BMI, self-efficacy to exercise, or food cravings.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nEven though pre-operative self-compassion was not directly associated with a lower 12-month post-operative BMI, it had a positive relationship with patients post-operative well-being and self-efficacy for controlling eating behaviour. In turn, this could help patients to manage their health long after bariatric surgery. Further work regarding the role of self-compassion on long-term health outcomes would be worthwhile.