Purpose: Obesity is a complex multifactorial disease. Parents with obesity could have an impact on the weight loss outcome of their children following bariatric-metabolic surgery. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between the weight status of the parents and the weight loss outcome in patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy (SG).
Methods: Patients undergoing SG with ≥ 3 years of follow-up between January 2016 and June 2018 were included in this study. The patients were categorized into three groups: (1) both parents did not have obesity (non-obesity parents, NOP); (2) one parent had obesity (single-parent obesity, SPO); (3) both parents had obesity (both parents' obesity, BPO). The main parameters for this study were the patients' preoperative and postoperative weight and the weight of the parents.
Results: A total of 218 SG patients were included in this study (NOP, n = 116; SPO, n = 64; BPO, n = 38). There was no statistically significant difference in the preoperative assessments. The main results for the NOP vs. SPO vs. BPO were as follows; parents' body mass index (BMI) 23.6 ± 2.5 vs. 27.9 ± 5.0 vs. 30.2 ± 3.3 kg/m2, percentage of total weight loss (%TWL) 30.2 ± 9.0 vs. 30.8 ± 10.4 vs. 23.8 ± 10.9%. The %TWL for the BPO group was significantly lower than the NOP and SPO groups (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The patient's weight loss outcome was significantly lower when both parents had obesity. Further controlled or prospective studies are needed to determine the best means to improve weight loss outcomes in such patients.
Keywords: Family support; Obesity; Parents’ obesity; Sleeve gastrectomy; Weight loss outcome.
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