Background: Bariatric surgery is one of most effective long-term treatments for morbid obesity. However, post-bariatric surgery anemia is identified as a common adverse effect and remains a challenge nowadays.
Aim: To estimate the risk of post-bariatric surgery anemia and to stratify the association between age, gender, and types of surgery.
Methods: This study is a population-based cohort study. We conducted this nationwide study using claims data from National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. There were 4373 morbidly obese patients in this study cohort.
Results: Among patients who were diagnosed with morbid obesity, 2864 received bariatric surgery. All obesity-associated comorbidities decreased in the surgical group. Increasing risk of post-bariatric surgery anemia among obese patients was found by Cox proportional hazards regression [adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 2.36]. Also, we found significantly increasing cumulative incidence rate of anemia among patients receiving bariatric surgery by log-rank test. After adjusting for age and gender, the increasing incidence of post-bariatric surgery anemia was found among women (adjusted HR: 2.48), patients in the 20-29-year-old group (adjusted HR: 3.83), and patients in the 30-64-year-old group (adjusted HR: 2.37). Moreover, malabsorptive and restrictive procedures had significantly higher adjusted HRs, 3.18 and 1.55, respectively.
Conclusion: Bariatric surgery give rise to anemia risk among obese patients, specifically in women, young- and middle-aged patients, and patients undergoing malabsorptive procedures in our population-based cohort study in Taiwan.
Keywords: Anemia; Bariatric surgery; Malabsorptive procedure; Obesity; Restrictive procedure; Women.
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