Long-Term Quality of Life Following Bariatric Surgery: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Significant benefits of bariatric surgery for morbidly obese individuals have been widely reported in the literature. Research interests represent a wide range of perspectives aimed at investigating a variety of clinical, economic, functional, and quality of life (QOL) outcomes. As a highly personalized and multidimensional construct, QOL has been identified as the most significant outcome of bariatric surgery. ¹ QOL studies are now well reported in the literature. However, these have been limited to quantitative designs, use a wide variety of measurements that conceptualize QOL differently, and report divergent results. Few studies have explored QOL as a holistic state from the patients' perspective or examined it beyond the first postoperative year. Consequently, long-term QOL remains an elusive phenomenon despite scientific consensus on its importance as a health outcome of bariatric surgery. Discovering its subjective meaning will help inform surgical decisions and improve the course of postoperative care. Toward that end, this study employed a qualitative approach to explore the phenomenon of QOL. Using focus group methods, the study aimed to describe the meaning of QOL from the subjective experiences of individuals who had weight reduction surgery more than 2 years ago. Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used to analyze data that yielded a rich description of seven themes that form the meaning of QOL to study participants. The study lays the descriptive groundwork for a broader program of research to improve care of bariatric surgery patients.