Nutrient Intake and Deficiency of Patients 1 Year After Bariatric Surgery: Tehran Obesity Treatment Study (TOTS)

Abstract

PurposeThis study aimed at assessing nutrient adequacy after 1 year in patients who had undergone gastric bypass (GB) surgery or sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and to investigate the association of nutrient adequacy with anthropometric indices. MethodsA total of 180 severely obese patients (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2) were selected among the participants of Tehran Obesity Treatment Study. Nutritional assessments were performed over 3 days of 24-h dietary recall. To evaluate the nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR), the subject’s nutrient intake was divided by the dietary reference intakes. The mean adequacy ratio (MAR) was also determined as the sum of NARs divided by the number of involved nutrients (n = 11). ResultsThe mean age of SG (67%) and GB (32%) patients was 39.2 ± 12 and 41.4 ± 10 years, respectively. SG patients had more postoperative fat-free mass (52.0 ± 12 kg) than GB patients (49.7 ± 8 kg) (P < 0.05). The most common postoperative serum nutrient deficiencies were related to vitamin B12 (30%), ferritin (19%), and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (16.2%). Moreover, high inadequacy of protein (> 80%) and total fat (> 70%) intake was reported. The MAR score showed that almost 45% of the patients had possibly adequate intakes of some nutrients. The adequacy of nutrients was positively associated with fat-free mass (β = 8.67, P < 0.05). ConclusionThese findings revealed that patients had inadequate nutrient intakes 1 year after bariatric surgery, which was accompanied by serum nutritional deficiencies. Compared to GB patients, SG patients had a better body composition. Overall, compliance of patients with dietary guidelines and supplementations needs to be carefully monitored in the postoperative period.