Earnings and work loss from 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery: A cohort study

The personal economic impact of bariatric surgery is not well-described.

To examine earnings and work loss from 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery compared with the general population.

Nationwide matched cohort study in the Swedish health care system.

Patients undergoing primary bariatric surgery (n = 15,828) and an equal number of comparators from the Swedish general population were identified and matched on age, sex, place of residence, and educational level. Annual taxable earnings (primary outcome) and annual work loss (secondary outcome combining months with sick leave and disability pension) were retrieved from Statistics Sweden. Participants were included in the analysis until the year of study end, emigration or death.

From 5 years before to 5 years after bariatric surgery, earnings increased for patients overall and in subgroups defined by education level and sex, while work loss remained relatively constant. Bariatric patients and matched comparators from the general population increased their earnings in a near parallel fashion, from 5 years before (mean difference -$3,489 [95%CI -3,918 to -3,060]) to 5 years after surgery (-$4,164 [-4,709 to -3,619]). Work loss was relatively stable within both groups but with large absolute differences both at 5 years before (1.09 months, [95%CI 1.01 to 1.17]) and 5 years after surgery (1.25 months, [1.11 to 1.40]).

Five years after treatment, bariatric surgery had not reduced the gap in earnings and work loss between surgery patients and matched comparators from the general population.