Awareness, Attitudes And Background Information about The Surgical Options in The Treatment of Obesity Among The General Adult Population in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To assess the awareness, attitudes and background information about the surgical options in the treatment of obesity among the general adult population in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia
Methods: In this cross-sectional study 420 adult residents from Riyadh from both genders were interviewed and given specifically designed questionnaire to assess their awareness about weight loss surgery and the attitude toward it as a method used in the treatment of obesity. Data were collected between September 2017 and December 2017. The questions highlighted 3 health status scales; 4 aspects including subject’s demographics characteristic, personal weight, height and BMI, and their understanding about obesity and its causes and beliefs about weight loss surgery. Scores were analysed using SPSS.
Results: More than 90% of the participant in this research identified at least three risk factors of obesity, and more than 90% of the participants had good knowledge about the lifestyle modification to prevent or reduce obesity, regarding the knowledge about bariatric surgery. Although (79%) of them knew the effectiveness of bariatric surgery as a method of reduction of weight; only (37.6%) thought that it will reduce mortality among obese people, (21.4%) knew that weight loss surgeries can result in complications but on the other hand (42.9%) of subjects thought that bariatric surgery can result in death.
The overall beliefs among the participants regarding the use of bariatric surgery as a method in the treatment of obesity was poor and only 38% had favourable beliefs about the surgery.
Conclusion: the knowledge of subjects about obesity and its preventive measures were high but the favourable perceptions about Bariatric surgeries were low. These results indicated that efficient educational programs about obesity and bariatric surgeries are needed for control of obesity and its complications as well as increasing the availability of weight loss surgeries.