Background: While body image improves in the first few months after surgery, data on long-term changes in body image after bariatric surgery are scarce and contradictory.
Methods: We assessed body image through the Stunkard Figure Rating Scale and the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scale, which measures appearance evaluation and orientation, overweight preoccupation, and self-classified weight. Surveys were conducted before surgery and at regular intervals until 5 years after bariatric surgery.
Results: 61 patients were included in the study. No patients were lost to follow-up until 18 months after bariatric surgery. At 5 years, there were 21 patients (34%) lost to follow-up. We detected an overall improvement in body image until 12-18 months post-surgery. Scores declined after 5 years post-surgery but were still higher than preoperative evaluations. Overweight preoccupation did not change throughout the follow-up period. There was a positive correlation between body weight lost and appearance evaluation. There was also a positive correlation between weight loss and the Body Areas Satisfaction Scale. There was a negative correlation between weight loss and overweight preoccupation. Appearance orientation and self-classified weight were not correlated with weight loss.
Conclusions: Body image improved after bariatric surgery but was not maintained for all 5 years after surgery.
Copyright: © 2022 Bosc et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.