Investigation of Body Awareness and Affecting Factors in Patients with Bariatric Surgery

Major weight loss after bariatric surgery (BS) makes the body sensitive to the environment. The factors associated with body awareness are unknown in patients with BS. In this study, we aimed to investigate the body awareness and the affecting factors in patients with BS.

Our study included 81 patients who had BS at least 6 months ago and 40 people of the same age and gender who had not. Participants' body awareness was evaluated with the Body Awareness Questionnaire, body compositions with bioelectric impedance device, joint position sensation (JPS) with photography method, physical activity level with International Physical Activity Questionnaire, quality of life with the Short Form-36, depression status with the Beck Depression Inventory, and cognition with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale. Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square tests were used for the comparison of the groups, and Spearman correlation analysis was used for in-group correlation analysis.

Body awareness was found to be higher in patients with BS compared to the control group (p = 0.002). Body awareness had a positive correlation with cognition (r = 0.277, p = 0.012), quality of life sub-scales (r = 0.245-0.374, p < 0.05), the amount of change in total body weight (r = 0.241, p = 0.027), and body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.269, p = 0.032); negative correlation with depression (r =  - 0.409, p = 0.016) and deviation in the JPS (r =  - 0.223, p = 0.046).

Body awareness of patients with BS was found to be high after surgery. Body awareness in patients with BS is associated with the amount of weight loss and BMI, depression, cognition, JPS, and health-related quality of life.