Benefits of Bariatric Surgery

The benefits of weight-loss surgery seem clear: Such procedures give those who undergo them a new outlook on life and majorly improved health. Now, Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) says bariatric surgery could be even more beneficial for older men than previously thought.

A study of 2,500 Veterans Affairs patients, most of them male, who had bariatric surgery and 7,500 matched controls who declined it showed the procedure reduces mortality by more than 50 percent from the time of the surgery up to 14 years later. Surgery patients, on average, were age 52 and had a body mass index of 47.

According to GHRI associate investigator and study coauthor Dr. David Arterburn, the results are similar to what researchers have found with young female bariatric patients. Weight-loss surgery is no quick fix, but for morbidly obese older men, it provides a dose of hope for a longer and healthier life.