Liverpool Support Group Assists Research
December 30, 2010
By Mr Conor Magee MB ChB MD FRCS
Gravitas Bariatric Surgery
What can be better than a cup of hot sweet tea in a friendly dry place when faced with a downpour of biblical proportions? And that is how I found myself at the Liverpool wlsinfo support group meeting in May.
Ken Clare had invited me to give a talk about assessing quality of life before and after bariatric surgery as well as an impromptu Question and Answer session. It shames me to say it was my first support group meeting but I was impressed by the commitment and energy shown by both the old hands and those newer members who were considering surgery.
At the meeting I was able to perform both the "SF36" quality of life assessment tool and the new "Morbid Obesity Impact Score- MOIS" test. The wlsinfo meeting allowed me to get scores for patients before and after surgery.
The SF36 is the gold standard test for assessing quality of life, but is hampered by the fact it does not address specific issues the morbidly obese face. Because of this we introduced the MOIS. The Liverpool meeting allowed me to compare the SF36 with the newer MOIS. I found out that quality of life improved significantly after bariatric surgery and that the MOIS may be able to replace the much more complicated SF36. Although these are preliminary results they are exciting.
The findings have been submitted to the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society Scientific Meeting next year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ken, Sharon and everyone at wlsinfo for making me feel welcome and, most importantly, contributing to this work.