Health Related Quality of Life After Gastric Bypass Surgery

The majority of studies which have evaluated health related quality of life are limited in the duration of follow up. The
objective of this study was to prospectively conduct an evaluation using a repeated cross sectional analysis of separate patient
cohorts who were up to four years after gastric bypass surgery. Adult Roux-en-Y gastric bypass patients were recruited to
the study. All patients were requested to complete a general health status questionnaire, the Short Form-36 (SF-36), before
surgery or at their post operative out patient follow up visits. Patient weight was documented at each follow up visit. A
cross sectional analysis was performed to evaluate SF-36 scores in each annual cohort. Data are reported as mean +/− S.D.
Three-hundred-eight patients completed at least one SF-36 assessment [Initial assessment at the time of surgery, time 1, n = 245, 1y n = 149, 2y n = 70, 3y n = 59, 4y n = 61]. The SF-36 scores were greater (p < 0.05) in each of the separate post surgery cohorts for physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health, social
functioning, pain, vitality, general health and the physical component summary (PCS) scores. While not comparing changes in
scores within individuals over time, these data suggest early improvement especially in the physical dimension of health related
quality of life. In this analysis, this finding was also observed in each of the separate cohorts up to 4 years after gastric
bypass surgery.