Lower BMI Doesn鈥檛 Improve Mental 人妻中出视频 After Weight-Loss Surgery. Here鈥檚 What Does.
Media Contact:
Sophia Friesen
Manager, Research Communications, 人妻中出视频 of Utah 人妻中出视频
Email: sophia.friesen@hsc.utah.edu
Key points:
- Weight-loss surgery reduces weight stigma for most patients.
- Lower weight stigma, but not lower BMI, is linked to better mental health.
- Continuing to experience weight stigma raises the risk of mental health concerns and disordered eating.
IMPACT: Reducing societal weight stigma can have a profound effect on health, independent of body weight.
New research shows that weight stigma鈥攁nd not weight itself鈥攈as the biggest impact on mental health and healthy behaviors in the years after weight-loss surgery.
Researchers found that patients who had gone through weight-loss surgery tended to experience much less weight stigma, and that this reduction in weight stigma鈥攂ut not lower BMI鈥攚as associated with healthier eating habits and better mental health.
On the other hand, continuing to experience stigma after surgery was associated with higher risks of depression, anxiety, and disordered eating.
鈥淲e think of a lot of health issues for these patients as being a given,鈥 says Larissa McGarrity, PhD, the first author on the study and a clinical psychologist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at 人妻中出视频 of Utah 人妻中出视频. 鈥淏ut the cumulative effect of stigma and discrimination actually contributes to a large part of the physical and mental health problems that we disproportionately see for patients with obesity compared to the general population.鈥
How weight-loss surgery affects quality of life
Metabolic bariatric surgery, commonly called weight-loss surgery, is the most effective evidence-based treatment for severe obesity. It reduces many health risks that are more common in people with obesity, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and all-cause mortality risk.
But many people expect weight-loss surgery to be a panacea for quality of life, and that鈥檚 not true. Some aspects of life, like social support and satisfaction with romantic relationships, tend to get worse.
People tend to experience significantly lower levels of weight stigma鈥攕hame, blame, and guilt around their body weight or shape鈥攊n the years following surgery, the researchers found in a survey of nearly 150 people.
McGarrity, who is also an associate professor in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the 人妻中出视频 of Utah, says that the change in experienced weight stigma was striking.
鈥淭he degree of change far exceeded clinically established norms in terms of what鈥檚 meaningful for a patient鈥檚 life and the impact they would notice,鈥 she says.
This reduction in weight stigma was linked to notable improvements in both mental and physical health. Previous research had established that the chronic stress of weight stigma directly contributes to many of the health risks associated with obesity, and sure enough, people who experienced less stigma in the years following surgery had lower levels of anxiety and depression. They were also less at risk for disordered eating, such as binge eating. And people who experienced less weight stigma were more likely to lose more weight and maintain the loss.
Lingering risks
Importantly, McGarrity notes, weight loss itself wasn鈥檛 associated with these positive changes to health. Change in BMI did not correlate with depression, anxiety, or dysregulated eating鈥攊mplying that social factors, rather than innate biological ones, make a huge contribution to the mental and physical health of people with obesity.
And not every patient who went through weight loss surgery experienced a decrease in bias and stigma. For about 40% of patients, weight stigma continued to impact their quality of life, leading to increased risk of mental health concerns, disordered eating, and weight recurrence.
Since the survey targeted patients who were treated at U of U 人妻中出视频, future research will be needed to test whether the results hold true in broader populations.
The researchers say their work emphasizes the critical need to reduce weight stigma, both within health care settings and without. 鈥淭he wide-ranging effects of weight stigma are one of the most important things I鈥檓 thinking about from both a research and clinical perspective,鈥 McGarrity says. 鈥淲eight loss is helpful for a whole lot of things, but that change in weight stigma may actually be the more powerful thing for mental health and quality of life over time.鈥
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The results are published in 人妻中出视频 Psychology as
The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of 人妻中出视频 under award number 1K12TR004413. Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of 人妻中出视频.