Bariatric Surgery Can Lower Diabetes Risk by 80%
Bariatric surgery can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in obese individuals by 80%, according to a new study.
While previous studies have demonstrated the alleviation of diabetes through bariatric surgery, there is not much data on the effects of bariatric surgery on the prevention of the disease.
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In order to further explore this relationship, researchers followed 2167 obese individuals (BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater) who underwent laparoscopic gastric banding, gastric bypass, or sleeve gastrectomy, between 2002 and 2014, and an equal number of controls.
After a median follow-up of 2.8 years, 38 cases (4.3%) of diabetes were diagnosed within the surgery group, compared with 177 cases (16.2%) among the controls.
Overall, laparoscopic gastric banding produced the greatest decrease in diabetes risk. However, due to the nature of the study, researchers cautioned against using the results to draw conclusions on the comparative effectiveness of the procedures.
“Our findings, together with those of previous studies, suggest that bariatric surgery could be a highly effective method for prevention of diabetes in patients with severe obesity,” they concluded.
“Further research is needed to understand the outcomes of different levels of uptake of obesity surgery, and the long-term effects for patients who receive current surgical procedures for obesity.”
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Booth H, Khan O, Prevost T, Reddy M, et al. Incidence of type 2 diabetes after bariatric surgery: population-based matched cohort study. Lancet. 2014 November 3 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1016/S2213-8587(14)70214-1