The association between body mass index and patients' experiences with inpatient care

To explore the association between patients' body mass index (BMI) and their experiences with inpatient care.

Cross-sectional. Mail survey.

University Hospital of Geneva.

Questionnaires were mailed to 2385 eligible adult patients, 6 weeks after discharge (response rate = 69%).

Patients' experiences with care were measured using the Picker inpatient survey questionnaire. BMI was calculated using self-reported height and weight. Main dependent variables were the global Picker patient experience (PPE-15) score and nine dimension-specific problem scores, scored from 0 (no reported problems) to 1 (all items coded as problems). We used linear regressions, adjusting for age, gender, education, subjective health, smoking and hospitalization, to assess the association between patients' BMI and their experiences with inpatient care.

Of the patients, 4.8% were underweight, 50.8% had normal weight, 30.3% were overweight and 14.1% were obese. Adjusted analysis shows that compared with normal weight, obesity was significantly associated with fewer problematic items in the surgery-related information domain, and being underweight or overweight was associated with more problematic items in the involvement of family/friends domain. The global PPE-15 score was significantly higher (more problems) for underweight patients.

Underweight patients, but not obese patients, reported more problems during hospitalization.