Awareness about complications of bariatric surgery among general population in Aseer region

Abstract EN

Background: Obesity is still a serious health concern around the world, and the number of people affected is increasing.

It is defined as a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more, and it can affect people of all ages, especially women of reproductive age.

Unfortunately, in patients with morbid obesity, dieting and behavioural changes are ineffective.

Until now, the only effective long-term treatment for morbid obesity has been surgical intervention, also known as "Bariatric surgeries.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by the purposely constructed questionnaire.

A questionnaire composed of the demographic items and items related to the awareness and knowledge about the Bariatric surgery awareness and complications.

Cronbach alpha of the questionnaire was calculated.

The study was conducted in the Aseer region of Saudi Arabia.

After collection of data, data were coded and entered in the SPSS ver.20 software for analyses.

Results: Out of 930 total respondents, 67.7% were males while 32.3% were females, the mean (SD) of age was 39.6(8.6).

Cronbach alpha was 0.84.

45% were not adopting this surgery because of the cost, while 35% were not adopting this because of the complications, 14% and 6% have alternatives and other options.

Conclusion: More workshops, seminars are required to promote more awareness and educate the people regarding the benefits and procedural information about bariatric surgery