Abstract

Background: Obesity is a significant health problem with high mortality and morbidity risk. The present study aimed at assessing the awareness of adult citizens in Al-Ahsa city, Saudi Arabia, regarding knowledge, effectiveness, complications, practice safety, and consequences of bariatric surgery, and to evaluate resources of public knowledge about bariatric surgery, as it has become popular.
Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adult citizens in AlAhsa city, Saudi Arabia, during 2019 using a self-administered survey consisting of two parts: participant's personal data and the perception of the participants about knowledge about bariatric surgery. The questionnaire followed a scoring system assessing the knowledge from a minimum of 0 t o a maximum of 25. All analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
Results: For the 595 participants, 24% of them showed a poor to a satisfactory score of the knowledge, whereas 76% have shown a good to excellent score. This study reflects a relatively good level of awareness about bariatric surgery in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia. The most common used sources of knowledge were social media, and a person they knew underwent to bariatric surgeries, which reflects that it is not easy for the public to get information about bariatric surgery from its trusted sources.
Conclusion: General population of Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, has relatively good knowledge of bariatric surgeries. The majority of the Al-Ahsa population relay on medically unreliable sources of information. This study could lead to the recommendation of increase public education about bariatric surgery and reliable medical sources through education programs conducting for the public.

Key words: Bariatric surgery, obesity, weight reduction surgery