title: Utility assessment of body contouring after massive weight loss.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The number of surgical procedures performed for obesity and massive weight loss (MWL) is increasing. The authors set out to quantify the health state utility assessment of living with MWL that can occur after such procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Utility assessments using the visual analog scale (VAS), time trade-off (TTO), and standard gamble (SG) were used to obtain utilities for MWL, monocular blindness, and binocular blindness from a sample of the general population and medical students.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All the measures for MWL of the 100 volunteers (VAS, 0.79 ± 0.13; TTO, 0.89 ± 0.12; SG, 0.89 ± 0.15) were significantly different (p < 0.005) from the corresponding measures for monocular blindness (0.63 ± 0.18, 0.84 ± 0.17, and 0.86 ± 0.16, respectively) and binocular blindness (0.31 ± 0.17, 0.63 ± 0.28, and 0.66 ± 0.27, respectively) except for the SG utility measure comparing monocular blindness with MWL. Age was inversely proportional to the TTO utility scores for MWL (p < 0.05). Caucasian race and medical education were independent predictors of SG utility scores (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In a sample of the general population and medical students, SG utility assessments for MWL were comparable with those for monocular blindness. Utility assessment of living with MWL varied with race (VAS and SG) and education (SG). The sample population, if faced with MWL, would consent to undergo a procedure such as body contouring with an 11% chance of death and be willing to trade 4 years of their life.
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Hani
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sinno
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thibaudeau
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tahiri
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mok
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lessard
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Samuel J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D011788:Quality of Life; D013518:Surgery, Plastic / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult