title: Quality of Life, Body Image and Sexual Functioning in Bariatric Surgery Patients.
abstract: This article provides an overview of the literature on quality of life, body image and sexual behaviour in individuals with extreme obesity and who undergo bariatric surgery. Quality of life is a psychosocial construct that includes multiple domains, including health-related quality of life, weight-related quality of life, as well as other psychological constructs such as body image and sexual functioning. A large literature has documented the impairments in quality of life and these other domains in persons with obesity and extreme obesity in particular. These impairments are believed to play an influential role in the decision to undergo bariatric surgery. Individuals who undergo bariatric surgery typically report significant improvements in these and other areas of psychosocial functioning, often before they reach their maximum weight loss. The durability of these changes as patients maintain or regain weight, however, is largely unknown.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.|Department of Surgery (Division of Plastic Surgery) and The Edwin and Fannie Gray Hall Center for Human Appearance, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Sarwer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA.|Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, ND, USA.
authors.forename: Kristine J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Steffen
mesh_terms: D050110:Bariatric Surgery / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015431:Weight Loss
keywords: body image; psychosocial status; quality of life; sexual functioning