Perceived barriers in the decision for bariatric and metabolic surgery: Results from a representative study in Germany

Einleitung:

The number of bariatric surgery remains low in Germany. Attitudes of the public may be an influencing factor: When skepticism is high, support for individuals wanting or needing to undergo surgery may diminish. This study aims at assessing the relevance of barriers to surgery and identifying predictors of barriers.

Methoden:

In a representative sample of the German population (n = 1,007), participants were asked to imagine that they would have to decide for or against surgery and then invited to rate how relevant each of the seven presented reason was to them.

Ergebnisse:

The barrier found most irrelevant is that surgery could be considered cheating. About 25% state that not knowing enough about surgery (28.5%), being afraid of surgery (28.3%) and negative consequences after surgery (24.5%) are reasons against surgery that were relevant. Having obesity was a predictor in two variables: Feeling like cheating (lower probability of relevance, OR = 0.58, p = 0.025) and lack of knowledge (lower probability of relevance, OR = 0.59, p = 0.031).

Schlussfolgerung:

In summary, the public's view of weight loss surgery is still limited in terms of knowledge and lacks information about post-surgical consequences. It is important to address these points as they may be pre- or antecedent of surgery stigma which affects post-surgical patients negatively.