What is it about?
We examined whether there was any difference in the effect of obesity surgery in those who developed obesity before the age of 20 compared with those who developed obesity as adults. The people who developed obesity early lost a little bit more weight after surgery and there was no difference in sequelae compared to people who developed obesity later in life.
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Why is it important?
For many diseases it is advantageous to treat early, but people with early obesity have usually had their illness for a long time when considering weight surgery. It has sometimes been speculated that people who have had their obesity for a long time will have a lesser effect of weight surgery in terms of weight loss and consequential disease. Here we show that this is not the case - surgical obesity treatment was equally effective in individuals that had developed obesity before the age of 20 as in individuals that developed obesity later in life. More knowledge of the factors that affect treatment outcome after obesity surgery, such as early-onset obesity, can help people with obesity make an informed choice about which treatment option is best for them.
Perspectives
The results were somewhat surprising, given previous speculation that prolonged exposure to obesity would lead to a lesser effect of obesity surgery. It was a positive surprise though, to be able to show that the surgery was equally effective in the two groups. This means that individuals with early onset obesity should not be excluded from surgical treatment just because they developed obesity at a younger age.
Johanna Andersson Assarsson
The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effects of Bariatric Surgery in Early- and Adult-Onset Obesity in the Prospective Controlled Swedish Obese Subjects Study, Diabetes Care, January 2020, American Diabetes Association,
DOI: 10.2337/dc19-1909.
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