Quality of Life

Quality of Life, Body Image and Sexual Functioning in Bariatric Surgery Patients

“…Scholarship on body image has grown dramatically and has established body image as an important area of quality of life (Allison & Sarwer, in press; Sarwer et al, ). Much of the early research on body image focused on the weight and shape concerns of individuals with eating disorders.…”

“…A substantial literature has repeatedly shown that individuals who lose weight report improvements in psychosocial status (Anderson et al, 2015; Heinberg & Lavery, as cited in Sarwer, Wadden, & Fabricatore, ; Still, Sarwer & Blankenship, ). Following bariatric surgery, individuals report statistically and clinically significant improvements in both health‐related and weight‐related quality of life (Kolotkin, Crosby, Gress, Hunt & Adams, ; Lier, Biringer, Hove, Stubhaug & Tangen, ; Pilone et al, ; Sarwer, Wadden, et al, ; Sarwer et al ). Many of these improvements are reported during the period of rapid weight loss and before patients reach their maximum weight loss.…”

“…Like improvements in quality of life, improvements in body image occur within the first postoperative year as patients are losing weight. Men and women both report these improvements, and they appear to be well‐maintained as patients reach their maximum weight losses and experience some modest weight regain (Sarwer, Spitzer, Wadden, Mitchell, Lancaster, Courcoulas et al, ; in press). At the same time, a large number of individuals report dissatisfaction with the loose, hanging skin that often results from a massive weight loss and turn to body contouring surgery to address this dissatisfaction (Ellison et al, this volume).…”

“…Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the quality of life of individuals because of its relationship to health and chronic disease. A now sizable body of research has investigated the relationship of quality of life to specific health conditions, including obesity (Sarwer, Bishop‐Gilliard, & Carvajal, ). Studies also have investigated changes in quality of life that occur with weight loss, both the modest weight losses seen with lifestyle modification and pharmacotherapy as well as the more sizable weight losses seen with bariatric surgery.…”

The Pain of Regain: Psychosocial Impacts of Weight Regain Among Long-Term Bariatric Patients

“…Additional research conveys that most of these improvements go hand-in-hand with weight loss, and not all patients experience psychosocial gains due to post-surgical outcomes such as a lack of weight loss, weight regain, and loose, sagging skin. 11,14,18,19,25 One recent study focused on psychosocial and behavioral variables and found that about half of participants reported considerable weight regain (>20% of total weight lost) from the lowest weight achieved post-surgery and that many of the variables (night eating, protein intake, sweet avoidance, fluid intake, physical activity, depression, and post-surgery alcohol abuse) that envisaged weight regain were modifiable factors. 14 Psychosocial factors such as depression, self-efficacy, and self-concept are emerging as critical variables, which impact the long-term effectiveness of bariatric surgery.…”