Logo image
Investigating discrepancies in demand and access for bariatric surgery across different demographics in the COVID-19 era
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Investigating discrepancies in demand and access for bariatric surgery across different demographics in the COVID-19 era

Aashna Mehta, Wireko Andrew Awuah, Jacob Kalmanovich, Helen Huang, Resham Tanna, Duaa Javed Iqbal, Tulika Garg, Halil Ibrahim Bulut, Toufik Abdul-Rahman and Mohammad Mehedi Hasan
Annals of medicine and surgery, v 82, pp 104368-104368
01 Oct 2022
PMID: 36268323
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104368View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

General & Internal Medicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine Medicine, General & Internal Science & Technology
Obesity affects over 650 million adults worldwide and increases the risk of cardiovascular events, diabetes, and hypertension. While lifestyle recommendations are popular management options, bariatric surgery has emerged as a standard of care in refractory cases, reported to cause at least a 30% reduction in mortality. In addition, it mitigates obesity-related complications leading to a significant improvement in the quality of life for morbidly obese patients (BMI >40). Despite the numerous benefits, demand and access to bariatric surgery vary across different demographics such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status. This demand and access were further reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has resulted in cancellations of elective surgeries such as weight loss procedures and promotes a sedentary lifestyle which has short-term and long-term detrimental consequences on the health of obese patients. In the context of the prevalent epidemiological trends, this reduction in bariatric services will disproportionately affect the elderly, males, low SES, and African Americans. This editorial highlights the prevalent discrepancies in demand and access to bariatric surgery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and possible recommendations to improve overall access and utilization of bariatric services in morbidly obese patients belonging to all demographics.

Metrics

3 Record Views
1 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Surgery
Logo image