Background: Bariatric surgery has become a popular procedure for treating obesity and its associated complications. However, few studies have examined the motivations of patients who choose this procedure.
Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the reasons for patients deciding to undergo bariatric surgery.
Methods: A total of 114 participants who were planning to have bariatric surgery completed a short questionnaire consisting of seven statements. Patients were asked preoperatively to rank the statements in order from most to least important. Statements described the following motives for seeking bariatric surgery: appearance, medical conditions, physical fitness, health effects, embarrassment, physical limitations, and employment.
Results: Most of the participants were female (67.5%). The median age was 34.5 years and the median body mass index was 44.5 kg/m². Among the participants, 30.7% rated having existing medical conditions as their first motivator, followed by fearing future health effects (37.7%) and physical fitness (28.9%) as their second and third motivators, respectively. Those who selected medical conditions as their first motivator were more likely to be male (40.5%, p< 0.05), to be ≥45 years old (55.6%, p ≤ 0.05), and to have a BMI of 40-50 kg/m² (36.1%, p ≤ 0.05). The influence of appearance was notable, as it was the second most commonly selected first motivator (25.4%) next to medical conditions. Those participants who chose appearance as their first motive were more likely to be female (31.2%, p
Key words: patient motivation, bariatric surgery, obesity surgery
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