Quality of life, sexual function, and bariatric surgery: a systematic review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with numerous comorbidities and affects various aspects of life, including quality of life (QOL) and sexual function (SF). Bariatric surgery (BS) is an effective treatment for obese people. Also QOL and SF after BS in the people are not well known. AIMS: To provide insight in the available prospective evidence regarding the short and long-term effects of BS on QOL and SF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic multi-database search was conducted for ‘quality of life’, ‘Sexual function’ and ‘Bariatric surgery’. Only prospective studies with QOL or SF before and after BS were included. The ‘quality assessment tool for before–after studies with no control group’ was used to assess the methodological quality. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies were assessed to be of ‘fair’ to ‘good’ methodological quality. Seven different questionnaires were used to measure both QOL and SF. A significant increase in QOL after BS and light increase in SF were found in all studies (P≤0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both QOL and SF are increased after BS on both the short and long term. However, due to the heterogeneity of the studies and the generality of the questionnaires are them hard to make a distinction among different BS and difficult to see a relation with medical profit. Therefore, designing QOL and SF measurements to the post BS population are recommended as the focus of future studies.

Keywords

• quality of life
• sexual function
• bariatric surgery