Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Loss to Follow-Up After Bariatric Surgery

Despite the importance of follow-up and multidisciplinary care after bariatric surgery, many patients do not attend postoperative appointments, particularly those with the medical team. The present study aimed to identify factors associated with loss to follow-up after bariatric surgery.

We recruited patients who underwent bariatric surgery between 01/01/2012 and 31/12/2013. Data were collected on demographic and socioeconomic information and comorbidities. Ten baseline psychological evaluations were blindly reviewed to evaluate the relationship between emotions and compliance with follow-up. During the 3-year postoperative period, we defined frequent attendees as those who attended at least two visits, whereas non-attendees were those who attended one visit or none. We evaluated baseline variables associated with non-adherence with follow-up schedules.

Among 92 patients, 41 patients (44.6%) attended at least two postoperative appointments, while 51 (55.4%) were classified as non-attendees. Among the non-attendees, significantly more were younger than 45 years compared with attendees. No other statistically significant differences were found in terms of socioeconomic variables. Multivariate logistic regression revealed male gender and psychological issued related to obesity to be independent predictors of poor compliance with follow-up. Blinded psychological evaluation of ten patients did not suggest that psychological factors are predictive of follow-up attendance.

Identifying factors associated with loss to follow-up after bariatric surgery is challenging. However, this is important in order to enable the design of personalized follow-up plans, especially for younger patients and those with psychological issues.