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Attitudes Towards Bariatric Surgery in the General Public

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Abstract

Background

Prevalence rates of obesity are still rising. Weight loss surgery (WLS) is the most invasive but also most effective treatment option when behavioral modification has failed. Research indicates that health care professionals hold ambivalent views on bariatric surgery, while views of the general public have not yet been investigated.

Methods

In a German representative sample of n = 3,003 respondents in a computer-assisted telephone interview, n = 1,008 persons were interviewed on their views of the effectiveness of bariatric surgery and other interventions for obesity. Also, willingness to recommend a treatment was assessed.

Results

Lifestyle-based interventions were viewed as most effective in terms of weight loss. About 50 % of the population stated that WLS is “very effective” while still a quarter of respondents did not ascribe effectiveness to WLS. Higher age was associated with lower expectations of effectiveness while higher stigmatizing attitudes and genetic attributes for obesity were associated with higher expectations of effectiveness. Seventy-two percent would not recommend WLS or undergo it, if applicable, themselves. Higher educated respondents and those that viewed WLS as effective were more likely to recommend WLS.

Conclusions

The German general public seems to be rather cautious regarding bariatric surgery. It may be assumed that false beliefs on the effectiveness and risk patterns of bariatric surgery are still very common, despite rising surgery numbers. Our results further emphasize the need for providing evidence-based information on bariatric surgery to the general public.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Forschung und Bildung, BMBF), Germany, FKZ: 01EO1001. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

CS, ML, KD, EB, TS, HHK, SRH, and ES declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Area Bariatric Surgery, IFB Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig University Medical Center, Stephanstraße 9c, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Claudia Sikorski, Tatjana Schütz & Edward Shang

  2. Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße 55, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Claudia Sikorski, Melanie Luppa, Katrin Dame & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller

  3. Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Str. 55, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Elmar Brähler

  4. Department of Medical Sociology and Health Economics, Hamburg-Eppendorf University Medical Center, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Hans-Helmut König

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  1. Claudia Sikorski
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  2. Melanie Luppa
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Correspondence to Claudia Sikorski.

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Sikorski, C., Luppa, M., Dame, K. et al. Attitudes Towards Bariatric Surgery in the General Public. OBES SURG 23, 338–345 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-012-0767-0

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