The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Weight Loss and Quality of Life One Year Post Metabolic Bariatric Surgery.

INTRODUCTION

Postoperative follow-up care after metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) is considered essential to achieve optimal outcomes. These follow-up care pathways were partially disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic and in particular the first (spring 2020) and the second wave (winter 2020/2021) had an impact on short-term outcomes of MBS in Germany.

METHODS

We analyzed data of 5,859 patients from 154 bariatric centers across Germany. Our predefined endpoints were percentage total weight loss (%TWL), bariatric quality of life (BQL), prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension 1-year post-surgery and follow-up participation 3 months and 1 year post surgery. We compared these outcomes for MBS patients affected by the COVID-19 pandemic between 2019-12-01 and 2020-02-29 (COVID-19 group) with a corresponding control group that was not affected by the pandemic (No-COVID-19 group; surgery: 2018-12-01-2019-02-28).

RESULTS

Follow-up participation was significantly lower in the COVID-19 group (3-month: 75.3% vs. 82.7%, OR = 0.62; 1-year: 63.7% vs. 71.3%, OR = 0.69; both p < 0.001). Among patients attending the 1-year follow-up, %TWL, T2D, and hypertension rates did not differ significantly. However, BQL was slightly lower in the COVID-19 group (-0.14; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

During the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic frequency of follow-up visits after MBS was reduced in Germany. For those who participated, the quality of life was slightly reduced while all other outcomes were comparable. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic - and lockdown measures in general - on short-term MBS outcomes.