Background: Follow-up after bariatric surgery is important if we are to identify long-term complications at an early stage and thereby improve long-term outcome. Despite great efforts, many patients are lost to follow-up. Definition of characteristics of patients failing to attend follow-up could help in defining a specific group for whom extra resources may be applied to improve the situation.
Objectives: To identify characteristics of patients failing to attend follow-up 2 years after laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery.
Setting: Multicenter study, Sweden.
Methods: Post hoc analysis of a randomized clinical trial in which preoperative patient characteristics and postoperative outcome measures were compared between patients who attended or did not attend a 2-year follow-up visit after laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery.
Results: Of the 2495 patients included, 260 did not attend a 2-year follow-up visit. Factors associated with higher risk for failure to attend were younger age (adjusted odds ratio [OR] .96, 95% confidence interval [CI].94.98/yr, P < .001); male sex (adjusted OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.51-3.63, P < .001); depression (adjusted OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.05-2.47, P = .029); history of smoking (adjusted OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.26-2.51, P = .001); being single (adjusted OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.03-2.11, P = .036); and being first generation immigrant (adjusted OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.05-2.88; P = .032). Elementary occupation (adjusted OR .42, 95% CI .18.99, P = .047) was associated with lower risk.
Conclusion: These findings indicate that there are preoperative characteristics that may help in identifying patients likely to fail to attend follow-up visits after laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. Special effort should be made to inform these patients of the importance of follow-up and to encourage them to attend.
Elsevier, 2019. Vol. 15, no 6, p. 880-886