Adolescent bariatric surgery: Caregiver and family functioning across the first postoperative year

Abstract

Background The present study examined the psychological distress, parenting stress, and family functioning in female caregivers of adolescents undergoing bariatric surgery compared to that of caregivers of adolescents with extreme obesity not undergoing surgery across the first postoperative year. Methods The female caregivers of 16 adolescents undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (mean age 16.6 years, mean body mass index 66.2 kg/m2; 94% recruitment) and those of 28 comparison adolescents who had sought behavioral weight management (mean age 16.2 years, mean body mass index 46.3 kg/m2; 90% recruitment) were included in the study. The caregivers completed measures of psychological distress (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised), parenting stress (Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents), and family functioning (Family Assessment Device) at baseline (before surgery) and at 6 and 12 months after surgery. Caregiver and adolescent anthropometric data were also obtained. Results At baseline, clinical cutoffs were exceeded by 29.5% of the caregivers for psychological distress, 31.8% for family dysfunction, and 13.2% for parenting stress. Linear mixed modeling indicated that bariatric adolescents had a significantly greater body mass index at baseline than the comparison adolescents (t = -7.79, P