Sara Monfared, MD, Marcus Yarbrough, MD, Don Selzer, MD, Dimitrios Stefanidis, MD, Jennifer Choi, MD, Annabelle Butler, MD, Ambar Banerjee, MD. Indiana University
Background: Comprehensive web and hospital based preparative patient education allow the morbidly obese patients to understand weight loss surgery, its benefits, the necessity of follow up and the risk of weight regain. While the in-house seminars provide a face-to-face interaction with the bariatric program staff, the online seminars are easily accessible and more cost effective. The primary objective of this study is to compare demographics and weight loss surgery outcomes between patients who participated in the online vs in-house preparative seminars.
Methods: After obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, a retrospective chart review was performed involving patients who underwent bariatric surgery between January 2015 and December 2016 at a tertiary care center. The patients were divided into two groups based on their choice of educational seminar, online or in-house, prior to their initial consult with a surgeon. Data was collected on age, type of insurance, length of stay (LOS), longest follow up and change in BMI to assess weight loss.
Results: One hundred and eighteen patients were included in this study. Eighty patients attended in-house seminar while 38 completed online seminar. The various types of surgery (laparoscopic gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and band) were similarly represented between the two groups. There was no difference in the type of insurance policy between the groups. Patients who elected to take the in-house seminar were on average 5 years older than those who chose the online course, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). There were no differences in LOS, longest follow up after surgery, and weight loss at 12 months between the groups.
Conclusion: When comparing bariatric surgery outcomes, there was no difference between patients who received web or hospital based preparative education. Bariatric programs should provide access to online seminars to save resources and cost. However, an in-person seminar should still be available for patients who are not technologically savvy or lack Internet access.
Keywords: Bariatric surgery, patient education, web based seminar
Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Abstract ID: 88310
Program Number: P616
Presentation Session: iPoster Session (Non CME)
Presentation Type: Poster