March 28, 2024
Affected person’s satisfaction with physician may affect choice to have bariatric surgical procedure: Newsroom




Affected person’s satisfaction with physician may affect choice to have bariatric surgical procedure: Newsroom

Dr. Jaime Almandoz is Medical Director of UTSW’s Weight Wellness Program.

DALLAS – Feb. 07, 2023 – Sufferers’ satisfaction with their physicians could affect their selections to bear bariatric surgical procedure, in line with a multicenter examine involving UT Southwestern and the UTHealth Faculty of Public Well being printed in JAMA Community Open.

“The connection that physicians have with their sufferers can have a robust affect on the well being care choice made by individuals with extreme weight problems and associated problems,” mentioned Jaime Almandoz, M.D., Affiliate Professor of Inner Medication within the Division of Endocrinology, Medical Director of the Weight Wellness Program, and co-author of the examine. “This is a vital modifiable danger issue for widening disparities in bariatric surgical procedure completion.”

Solely about half of the sufferers eligible and referred for bariatric surgical procedure full the process regardless of its comparatively low danger and excessive advantages. Bariatric surgical procedure, generally often known as weight reduction surgical procedure, can cut back the danger of significant problems related to weight problems, together with Sort 2 diabetes, fatty liver illness, and hypertension. Notably, utilization of bariatric surgical procedure is even decrease amongst sufferers who’re Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black in contrast with those that are non-Hispanic white.

“Weight problems impacts over 40% of U.S. adults, and bariatric surgical procedure is the best therapy for extreme weight problems,” Dr. Almandoz mentioned. “Knowledge present that, past enchancment in physique weight, individuals who bear bariatric surgical procedure usually tend to have a greater high quality of life and better life expectancy than those that don’t.”

Lack of insurance coverage protection, issues about surgical problems, and language obstacles are identified to have an effect on utilization charges, however these don’t fully account for the low proportion of sufferers who elect to have the surgical procedure. The connection between sufferers and physicians for the therapy of weight problems is of rising curiosity, however little is thought about how this relationship impacts sufferers’ selections.

Dr. Almandoz and colleagues sought to discover whether or not the connection with the doctor performs a job in a affected person’s option to have bariatric surgical procedure as a part of a mission funded by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and led by Sarah Messiah, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Luyu Xie, Ph.D., Pharm.D, of UTHealth Faculty of Public Well being. The examine concerned 408 sufferers referred to bariatric surgical procedure clinics or a medical weight problems program within the Dallas-Fort Price space between July 2019 and Could 2022; 124 accomplished the surgical procedure. Researchers evaluated the affected person relationship with the bariatric surgeon by a Affected person Satisfaction Questionnaire and correlated the outcomes with whether or not the affected person had bariatric surgical procedure.

The first components correlating with a accomplished surgical procedure embrace the affected person’s notion of the doctor, the flexibility of the doctor’s workplace to carry out the surgical procedure nicely, communication, accessibility, and comfort.

“These could establish areas to focus on for future interventions,” mentioned Dr. Xie, a postdoctoral analysis fellow at UTHealth Faculty of Public Well being and lead writer of the examine. “Certainly, future research are wanted to ascertain efficient methods for enhancing affected person satisfaction amongst ethnically numerous bariatric sufferers.”

Dr. Almandoz added, “Our findings counsel that specializing in these major components and constructing belief with the affected person could assist to extend the utilization of bariatric surgical procedure for treating weight problems.”

Different UTSW researchers who contributed to this work embrace Jeffrey Schellinger, Carrie McAdams, and Benjamin Schneider.

This examine was funded by a grant from the Nationwide Institute on Minority Well being and Well being Disparities of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (R01MD011686). Dr. McAdams holds The Fisher Household Distinguished Professorship in Ladies’s Psychological Well being Research.

About UT Southwestern Medical Middle

UT Southwestern, one of many nation’s premier tutorial medical facilities, integrates pioneering biomedical analysis with distinctive scientific care and training. The establishment’s school has obtained six Nobel Prizes, and contains 24 members of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, 18 members of the Nationwide Academy of Medication, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The complete-time school of greater than 2,900 is answerable for groundbreaking medical advances and is dedicated to translating science-driven analysis shortly to new scientific therapies. UT Southwestern physicians present care in additional than 80 specialties to greater than 100,000 hospitalized sufferers, greater than 360,000 emergency room instances, and oversee almost 4 million outpatient visits a yr.