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Objective: To determine impact weight-loss surgery has on health of patient’s children.
Design: Retrospective cohort.
Setting: Lahey Clinic Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Center, October - November 2011.
Patients: Patients 25 years-old or greater, with children, more than 6 months post-op.
Interventions: Survey administered at follow-up appointment.
Main Outcome Measures: Preoperative and postoperative measurement of children’s food choices, soda and fast food consumption, fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, activity level, and parents’ quality of food stocked at home, quality of parenting. Data maintained in Microsoft Excel Database, analyzed using Wilcox Signed Rank test.
Results: 54 of 80 patients seen had children. 60% of children made healthier food choices post-op, 2.1% made worse (p< 0.0001). 63.8% consumed less soda, 0% consumed more (p< 0.0001). 36.2% consumed fast food less frequently, 0% consumed more frequently. (p< 0.0001). 42.2% consumed more fruits and vegetables. 2.2% consumed less (p< 0.0001). 30.4% were less sedentary, 0% more sedentary (p< 0.0001). 38.3% of children had increased physical activity, 2.2% decreased physical activity (p=0.0042). 60% of parents improved types of food they stocked for children, 2.1% did not improve (p<0.00001). 45.8% of parents said quality of parenting improved, 0% said it worsened. (p< 0.0001).
Conclusions: Children of parents who underwent bariatric surgery had improvement in health postoperatively. Parents stocked healthier food and children made healthier food choices. Average child's consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables nearly doubled, they watched TV 30 minutes less per day. The parent’s surgery promoted physical activity among children, who were preoperatively much lower than average, and postoperatively had greater physical activity than their peers.