Quality of life evaluation in Mexican patients with severe obesity before and after bariatric surgery

INTRODUCTION In Mexico, neither the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) nor the Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS) instruments have been used to assess quality of life (QoL) before and after bariatric surgery (BS). OBJECTIVE To describe changes in QoL using the SF-36 and BAROS questionnaires in patients with severe obesity before and after BS. METHODS Clinical and anthropometric data of patients undergoing bariatric surgery between 2015 and 2016 were collected. Statistical significance was considered with a p-value < 0.05. RESULTS 230 patients were analyzed, 98 before and 132 and after BS; most were females (81 %). Initial body mass index was 48 kg/m2 (44-53). SF-36-measured QoL showed an increase in the physical component score from 43 to 54.2 points (p < 0.001), and in the mental component, from 53.3 to 56.6 points after BS. With BAROS, 98.5 % showed good to excellent QoL results within the first three months after BS. CONCLUSION When measured with the SF-36 and BAROS questionnaires, QoL of Mexican patients with severe obesity was found to improve after BS.