Dr Karen Throsby
In January 2005 Karen Throsby, a lecturer in Sociology at the London School of Economics, approached the wlsinfo Charity about involving our members in her research. She was working on a project exploring people's experiences of weight loss surgery (WLS). At that time obesity was a topic of enormous public interest and concern. Weight loss surgery was one of a number of medical interventions offered for the treatment of obesity, and the number of surgeries performed in both the public and private sectors was anticipated to rise. However, very little was known about the ways in which this surgery is experienced, not only by those who undergo it (or who wish to undergo it), but also by those who live with and care for those undergoing WLS.Karen's research project aimed to address this knowledge gap. The findings from the research will be reported to policy forums, professional bodies and patient groups, as well as to other sociologists working in this field. This information sheet explains two of the ways in which you could contribute to this research; a third way of participating - focus group discussions arranged through regional support groups.
Many of our members volunteers to meet with Karen and she went on to complete this important piece of work. What follows is a summary report from Karen that she has agreed for us to place on the website.
We would like to thank Karen for this work and look forward to seeing the development of future areas of work.
Please click here to read the full article
