Health‐related outcomes in patients enrolled on surgical and non‐surgical routes in a weight management service

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This study evaluates a specialist weight management service and compares outcomes in participants referred to the service undergoing either surgery or non‐surgical routes to support weight loss. METHODS: Four hundred and forty eight participants were assessed on various weight‐related outcomes (body mass index [BMI], psychological distress, quality of life, nutrition, weight‐related symptoms, physical activity) on referral to the service and on discharge. The effect of group (surgery or non‐surgery) and time in the service were facilitated by doubly multivariate analyses of variance models. RESULTS: Between referral and discharge, participants improved significantly on a combination of outcomes (P < .001) and on each outcome assessed individually. The magnitude of overall improvement was moderate (partial‐η(2) = 0.141). Individual improvement components varied; including a moderate reduction of 3.2% in the BMI outcome measure and a substantive gain of 64.6% in quality of life. Participants on non‐surgical routes performed significantly better than participants on surgical routes on a linear combination of outcomes (P < .001) and on all outcomes except nutrition; with an effect of route small‐to‐moderate in magnitude (partial‐η(2) = 0.090). CONCLUSIONS: Weight management services are successful in achieving weight management‐related outcomes in the short‐ and long‐term, with large overall improvements between referral and discharge averaged over all participants observed. Non‐surgical routes appear to confer benefits between referral and discharge compared to surgical routes.