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 Researchers found that compared to people who didn't have so-called
bariatric surgery, those who did were more likely to become
separated or divorced, if they were married, and more likely to get
into a new relationship or get married, if they had been single.
The effects of weight-loss surgery extend beyond just losing pounds
or kilos, coauthor Per-Arne Svensson of Sahlgrenska Academy at
University of Gothenburg told Reuters Health by phone.
Svensson's team looked at data from two large studies of people who
did or did not have weight-loss operations. Seventy to 75 percent of
participants were women.
The first study compared 1,958 obese patients who had bariatric
surgery with 1,912 who did not.
Overall, 999 participants were single at the start. In this group,
four years later, nearly 21 percent of those who had surgery had
gotten married or started a new relationship, compared with roughly
11 percent of those who didn't have surgery. Ten years later, rates
of marriage or new relationships were nearly 35 percent in the
surgery group and 19 percent in the no-surgery group.
Among patients who were married to start with, however, the rate of
divorce or separation after four years was about 9 percent in the
surgery group compared with 6 percent in the control group. After 10
years, it was about 17 percent in the surgery group and about 12
percent in the other group.
The second study compared 29,234 obese individuals who had weight
loss surgery and 283,748 individuals in the general population. The
unmarried people who had weight-loss surgery were 35 percent more
likely to get married, and surgery patients who were married were 41
percent more likely to get divorced, compared to people in the
general population.
"Within the surgery groups, changes in relationship status were more
common in those with larger weight loss," the authors reported in
JAMA Surgery.
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Weight loss surgeries result "in a re-calibration of relationships,
with patients realizing that they can indeed get out of unhappy
relationships and/or initiate new healthy ones," Dr. Samer Mattar,
President of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery
and Medical Director, Swedish Weight Loss Services in Seattle,
Washington, told Reuters Health by email. He was not involved in the
study.
In both studies, everyone lived in Sweden. "It is unknown if the
results can be generalized to other countries and cultures," the
authors acknowledged.
Another limitation of the new analysis is that it can't prove that
weight loss surgery causes relationships to change. The increased
incidence of such changes after bariatric surgery might be
associated with increased tension in already vulnerable
relationships or to improvements that empower patients to leave
unhealthy relationships, the study authors suggest.
They also note that although most post-bariatric surgery patients
and their partners report an overall maintained or increased quality
in the relationship, partners of patients who have undergone
bariatric surgery sometimes report feeling jealous or no longer
needed.
"Bariatric surgery magnifies and clarifies the pros and cons of
relationships," said Mattar. Patients should be aware, he said, that
the surgery will improve their health and quality of life, including
their ability to independently and confidently make personal
decisions.
Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for obesity that has
become increasingly popular. In 2016, surgeons performed 216,000 of
these procedures in the U.S. alone, including gastric bypass,
gastric banding, and sleeve gastrectomy. While all surgeries carry
risks, evidence shows that the risks of morbid obesity outweigh the
risks of bariatric surgery, according to the American Society for
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2Een4Db JAMA Surgery, online March 28, 2018.
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