Bariatric Surgery Reduces Emotional Eating in the Short Term: Study
According to a new study bariatric surgery resulted in a significant short- to medium-term reduction in emotional eating, suggesting that surgical weight-loss treatments may have an added benefit on maladaptive eating behaviors independent of weight loss. This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that scores on emotional eating consistently decreased up to 12 months postsurgery, reinforcing that bariatric surgery can be seen to attenuate eating in response to emotional triggers at least during the initial postoperative period. The study was published in BJS Open by L. Y. Wong and fellow researchers.
Emotional eating, which refers to eating driven by low pleasure rather than hunger, is prevalent among obese individuals. Although the long-term efficacy of weight loss provided by bariatric surgery is well known, its influence on the eating behavior of emotional eating remains uncertain.
This review and meta-analysis were carried out following the PRISMA guidelines. Searches of 15 electronic databases were performed from their inception through August 2019. Only full-text, English-language studies were selected. The studies that were included involved patients who underwent primary bariatric surgery, in whom emotional eating had been quantitatively evaluated, and preoperative and postoperative scores for emotional eating were available for the same group of participants.
There were 23 studies that went into the qualitative synthesis
In all, 6,749 participants were analyzed.
Follow-up duration ranged from 2 weeks to 48 months.
Key findings
Emotional eating scores decreased consistently up to 12 months after bariatric surgery
Beyond 12 months, results were mixed, with some studies showing sustained benefit and others showing attenuation
17 studies involving 2,811 participants were included in the meta-analysis
Emotional eating decreased with a standardized mean difference (SMD) of 1.09
95% confidence interval: 0.76 to 1.42
Follow-up window for pooled analysis: 4–18 months post-surgery
The magnitude of change represented a large effect size
Bariatric surgery led to a considerable and significant decline in emotional eating in the first 4-18 months post-operatively, suggesting the presence of significant short- to medium-term benefits of bariatric surgery in controlling emotional eating behaviors. However, conflicting findings in the longer term suggest that controlling emotional eating may need additional behavioral strategies in addition to bariatric surgery.
Reference:
Wong, L. Y., Zafari, N., Churilov, L., Stammers, L., Price, S., Ekinci, E. I., & Sumithran, P. (2020). Change in emotional eating after bariatric surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis. BJS Open, 4(6), 995–1014. https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs5.50318
