Patients' health related quality of life after massive weight loss reconstruction in the Netherlands

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of undergoing massive weight loss reconstruction (MWR) on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in the Netherlands. Method: A retrospective study was performed among 131 Dutch bariatric patients, divided into two groups: an intervention group (93 patients who had undergone MWR) and a control group (38 patients who had not undergone MWR). HR-QoL was assessed by the validated BODY-q questionnaire. The sign test was used to measure the difference between the 0 and 12 months’ measurements of HR-QoL in both groups, whereas multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess whether undergoing MWR significantly predicted participants’ incremental HR-QoL. Results: Whereas the intervention group showed a significance improvement on all parameters of the BODY-q between 0 and 12 months (all parameters p <.001), the control group did not. The multiple regression analysis showed that having undergone a MWR significantly and positively predicted incremental HR-QoL on all scales on the BODY-q (all parameters p < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study suggests a positive impact of MWR on the HR-QoL of bariatric patients.