Health-related outcomes in patients enrolled on surgical and non-surgical routes in a weight management service

Background and Aims: This study evaluates a specialist weight management service and compares outcomes in participants referred to the service undergoing either surgery or non-surgical routes to support weight loss.

Methods: Four hundred and forty eight participants were assessed on various weight-related outcomes (body mass index [BMI], psychological distress, quality of life, nutrition, weight-related symptoms, physical activity) on referral to the service and on discharge. The effect of group (surgery or non-surgery) and time in the service were facilitated by doubly multivariate analyses of variance models.

Results: Between referral and discharge, participants improved significantly on a combination of outcomes ( P < .001) and on each outcome assessed individually. The magnitude of overall improvement was moderate (partial-η 2 = 0.141). Individual improvement components varied; including a moderate reduction of 3.2% in the BMI outcome measure and a substantive gain of 64.6% in quality of life. Participants on non-surgical routes performed significantly better than participants on surgical routes on a linear combination of outcomes ( P < .001) and on all outcomes except nutrition; with an effect of route small-to-moderate in magnitude (partial-η 2 = 0.090).

Conclusions: Weight management services are successful in achieving weight management-related outcomes in the short- and long-term, with large overall improvements between referral and discharge averaged over all participants observed. Non-surgical routes appear to confer benefits between referral and discharge compared to surgical routes.