Youngstown Daily Legal News

Ohio State researchers: Marriage may stunt weight loss after surgery

ALLISON SLONAKER
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 10, 2016

Being married could work against patients who are trying to lose and keep off weight after weight-loss surgery, according to researchers at The Ohio State University.

Ideally spouses could play a large role in helping patients lose weight and keep it off after their surgery, but the OSU researchers found that isn’t the case.

The researchers, who were led by Megan Ferribly, a graduate student in human sciences, found the patients’ romantic and family relationships can also be affected by the impact of the surgery.

The group of researchers reviewed 13 weight-loss surgery studies and found in some cases that the single peers of the married patients lost more weight.

They also discovered that the relationships between the married couples would break down post surgery.

“Food is so central to family routines and celebrations and when you undergo a surgery that so vastly impacts your ability to eat as you did before, family members take notice,” Ferriby said.

Ferriby and Keeley Pratt, Ferriby’s advisor and assistant professor of human sciences, said that after discovering what they did in the study, they are now interested in studying the role of romantic and family relationships.

They believe the results suggest that spouses and family members should be a part of the conversation before and after the surgery to give the patient the greatest possibility of reaching his or her goal weight and keeping the weight off.

Around 65 percent of individuals interested in the weight-loss surgery are married.

The researcher said health care teams could take advantage of the potentially positive influence of supportive and engaged spouses.

The health care team could also work to help strengthen the relationship and boost the spousal support prior to surgery when there is a spouse who isn’t supportive.

The researchers want to look at the issue more closely and plan to do so in two studies with patients from the Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.

They are gathering more data to have a better understanding of the impact surgery has on romantic and family relationships and how the relationship contribute to weight-loss success, Pratt said.

The recent review included studies that were published between 1990 and 2014.

The OSU researchers spilt the studies into two categories. First they looked at research on the influence marriage had on weight-loss post surgery and then the effects the surgery had on the quality of the marital relationship.

There are several different options available to the obese patients, but most of the patients the OSU researchers reviewed had underwent gastric bypass, which is when doctors create a smaller stomach and bypass part of the digestive tract.

Of the studies which addressed marriage and weight loss, four out of six showed the married patients lost less weight. A study that looked at 180 gastric bypass patients showed that the married patients were 2.6 times more likely to be unsuccessful in reaching their goal weight after surgery. Another study showed the unmarried patients were 2.7 times more likely to keep up their post-surgical diet and exercise.

The other two studies in the category showed no connections between marital status and the amount of weight lost. None of the studies showed the married patients having better weight-loss.

The researchers looked at 10 studies with data on relationship quality after surgery and found evidence that some relationships seemed to deteriorate after surgery.

One study found the husband became more dissatisfied after his wife’s surgery, especially if the wife started being more assertive.

However, three of the studies addressed sexuality and showed more sex and more enjoyment of sex among the patients.

The results show why it is important to work with the patient’s family during the entire surgery process, said the researchers.

When behaviors and routines are shifted in a family it can be upsetting whether to spouses, partners or children, said Pratt, who also works with pediatric weight-loss patients and their families.

Pre-surgical psychological preparation for the patients has become increasingly focused on in hospitals that offer weight-loss surgery.

Little has been done to encourage the family members and spouses to be included in the process to better understand and support their loved ones, Pratt said.

With the available peer support that is often offered to patients, it can potentially make the spouse feel alienated, Ferriby said.

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