Weight-Loss Surgery’s Health Benefits Found to Have Costs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-18/weight-loss-surgery-s-health-benefits-found-to-have-costs.html

Obese people who have weight-loss surgery gain at least six years of health benefits that include fewer diabetes cases and lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Even so, their medical costs didn’t drop.

While the advantages linked to diminished fat were found to be durable over six years in a study published today, a second report tied the surgery to complications such as gallstones and anemia that raised how much patients spent over the same time. The research was included in an obesity theme issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More than 500 million people worldwide are obese, according to the World Health Organization. Other research in the journal found that children with high levels of bisphenol A, a chemical in consumer products, were twice as likely to be obese and that some types of body fat are more dangerous than others. The surgery findings suggest the procedures are underused, said Philip Schauer, at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

“Despite the somewhat overwhelmingly positive study results, surgery rates haven’t changed,” with about 1 percent of those who qualify getting an operation, said Schauer, director of the clinic’s Bariatric and Metabolic Institute. “We’re not anywhere close to coming up with effective prevention strategies.”