The main finding of this retrospective study of 2142 treatment seeking patients was that only obesity grade 3 (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) was significantly associated with increased odds of undergoing bariatric surgery as the primary treatment for morbid obesity. Conversely, increased risk of CVD was associated with lower odds of opting for surgical treatment. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study to assess, using a holistic obesity staging system, if patients opting for bariatric surgery differ from those choosing conservative treatment. Importantly, the KOSC were applied retrospectively and did not influence treatment choice. The patients and the multidisciplinary team took part in a shared decision-making process [11]. We could not confirm our hypothesis that surgical patients would have higher scores in most domains of the KOSC.
The surgical patients had a slightly lower 10-year risk of CVD (9.4% vs 10.6%) than patients who chose lifestyle intervention. This might partly be explained by the lower mean age in the surgical group, as well as by the fact that some clinicians may regard high age (e.g., > 60 years) as a relative contraindication against surgery. Our results support the notion that older patients tend to choose lifestyle intervention rather than weight loss surgery. On the other hand, compared with lifestyle intervention, undergoing bariatric surgery as treatment for morbid obesity was associated with significantly reduced mortality-risk even in patients aged 55–74 years according to a recently published study [15]. Thus, age alone should not be considered a contraindication in the preoperative risk-assessment for bariatric surgery. Importantly, although high-risk patients in general might benefit more from bariatric surgery, very high risk patients may also have an increased risk of early postoperative complications and death [16]. Accordingly, an individual’s risk of a future CV-event, as well as the postoperative risk of complications, should be systematically assessed and discussed with the patient and surgeon before a treatment decision is taken.
There is convincing evidence that bariatric surgery is associated with resolution of type 2 diabetes or improved glycemic control [17–20]. By contrast, the possible long-term beneficial effects of bariatric surgery on diabetes and its complications are less well documented. Our retrospective analysis indicates that the presence of diabetes (stage 2–3) did not significantly influence treatment choice, although patients with diabetes and an HbA1c below 9.0% (stage 2), had slightly higher odds (24%) of choosing bariatric surgery than lifestyle treatment. This might indicate that the beneficial effects of bariatric surgery have been under-communicated by our multidisciplinary teams, or that patients with advanced disease were recommended to abstain from surgery due to higher risk of postoperative complications.
A diagnosis of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea requiring continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment (Domain A, stage 2) was not associated with treatment choice, OR 0.79 (95% CI 0.61, 1.03). However, the prevalence of moderate to severe OSA requiring CPAP-treatment (11–14%) in the present analysis is probably underestimated as the data were retrieved at the first patient visit before the systematic work-up for possible co-morbidities (including sleep registrations). A previous clinical trial comparing gastric bypass and intensive lifestyle intervention recruiting patients from the same population showed that 35% and 25% of the patients in the surgical and lifestyle groups had moderate to severe OSA, indicating the need for CPAP-treatment [21].
Avoiding inactivity may reduce all-cause mortality, and increased levels of physical activity have been reported after bariatric surgery [22, 23]. In our analysis, patients with less than one hour physical activity per week were more likely to undergo bariatric surgery than lifestyle intervention. However, although physical inactivity was moderately associated with subsequent bariatric surgery in the univariable analysis, this association should be interpreted with caution. After adjustments for age and gender, physical inactivity was no longer significantly associated with increased odds of having bariatric surgery. Furthermore, stratification by gender showed that this association was significant in women only. Whether physical inactivity should be a criterion favoring bariatric surgery remains open for discussion.
The economy domain (Domain E) was defined according to working status as given by the public social welfare system in Norway. We were not able to distinguish between the two lower stages in Domain E, and workplace disadvantage was classified into stage 2 whereas being disabled was classified into stage 3. This classification might have overestimated the workplace disadvantage from severe obesity as other possible causes were not available. Two other studies have prospectively assessed the financial aspects of obesity before and after bariatric surgery [9, 20]. Both of these studies presented self-reported information from patients prior to surgery and 12 months after surgery. Although one of the studies reported improvements in the economy domain after surgery [20], the other did not [9].
Whether data on gonadal status may facilitate obesity treatment choice in patients with morbid obesity is not clear. In a recently published study of women with morbid obesity, androgen status normalized after gastric bypass surgery, but the hormonal changes did not reverse metabolic abnormalities [24]. The present study assessed the gonadal domain in women, with the prevalence of hyperandrogenemia and PCOS not differing significantly between treatment groups.
At present, there is no consensus on the therapeutic consequences of a psycological evaluation of patients with severe obesity. Psychological factors or motivation for obesity treatment were not measured in the present study. However, the patients in the surgery group had a longer duration of obesity and possibly a prolonged period of unsuccessful conservative obesity treatment. In accordance with the results of a previous review by Wadden et al., a large proportion (aproximately 40%) of the patients in our cohort reported a lifetime history of symptoms of either anxiety or depression, with no difference between treatment groups [25]. Although mental health and affective symptoms often improve after bariatric surgery, it is questionable whether patients with serious psychological symptoms benefit from bariatric surgery, and should rather as such abstain from surgery [26, 27]. A survey of psycological assessment of bariatric surgery applicants showed that psyhologists differed in their preoperative evaluations, with the respondents recommending either the delay or denying of surgery for between zero and 60% of the candidates. [28].
Strengths and limitations
The major strength of this study is the large cohort of consecutively included treatment seeking Caucasian patients (97%) with morbid obesity. Limitations include the retrospective design of the study. Furthermore, the results may not be generalized to individuals of other ethnicities. Moreover, the study participants received treatment between 2005 and 2010, a period in which our multidisciplinary team tended to focus more on weight loss, whereas subsequently our focus has been more on comorbidities when discussing with patients the outcomes of treatment. Separate analysis of the missing data of domain E and F showed that the patients with missing data were comparable with patients with available data in terms of age, BMI and gender distribution (data not shown). The relatively long wait time between baseline and bariatric surgery might have favored an initial non-surgical treatment choice. On the other hand, given that the wait time for patients who chose lifestyle intervention first was even longer than for patients who chose bariatric surgery, wait time for surgery has probably not influenced the treatment choice in this study. Finally, each patient was informed about risks and benefits by a multidisciplinary team including an internist, while a surgeon was not consulted if the patient opted for non-surgical treatment. We cannot rule out that this might have favored a higher proportion of patients opting for intensive lifestyle intervention as first-line treatment.