Assessing Quality of Life for Morbidly Obese Patient

Abstract

As the worldwide prevalence of obesity has been steadily rising, bariatric surgery which guarantees sustainable weight control for morbid obesity is rapidly developing at the same time. Morbid obesity carries significant health risks to patients in multi-dimensional way including physical, psychological, and social co-morbidities. And the decrease in well-being due to poor health may have adverse effects on health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) for morbidly obese patients Bariatric surgery provides innovative treatment for morbid obesity and reverses its co-morbidities with positive alteration of weight-related parameters. Assessing HR-QOL is one of indispensable factors for measuring outcomes of bariatric surgery because poor HR-QOL of obese people has often persisted after weight loss. Numerous studies reporting HR-QOL in bariatric patients were conducted using various instruments, none of which, however, achieved recognition as gold standard HR-QOL instrument for bariatric patients. HR-QOL instruments in bariatric field need to satisfy some conditions. It could detect obesity-related HR-QOL hazards sensitively before and after surgery for evaluating effects of bariatric surgery. And it has to be equipped with reliability and validity in Korean version as well as original questionnaire in English. The main aim of this review is to identify instruments used in assessing HR-QOL in bariatric patients and reveal their pros and cons in order to find adequate HR-QOL instruments for Korean morbidly obese patients.