Background: Prior studies have shown socioeconomic factors and race to affect weight loss after bariatric surgery, but few have focused on the impact of insurance status. The purpose of this study was to determine if insurance status affects bariatric surgery patients' surgical outcomes and weight loss.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 408 bariatric patients who underwent laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG). Patients were stratified by insurance status and surgery type to evaluate weight loss and surgical outcomes.
Results: Overall, patients experienced 71.0% excess weight loss at 1-year postoperatively. Patients undergoing LRYGB had greater percent excess weight loss (%EWL) at 1-year (74.5% vs 63.3%, P < .001) than SG patients. Upon multiple regression analysis, insurance type did not affect %EWL. Instead, younger age, female gender, LRYGB procedure, and lower initial BMI were all associated with greater %EWL.
Conclusions: Insurance type is not a useful independent predictor of successful weight loss in bariatric surgery patients.
Keywords: bariatric surgery; bariatric surgery outcomes; gastric bypass; insurance status; sleeve gastrectomy; weight loss; weight loss surgery.