Research
Adherence
Patients prefer surgical weight loss over medical interventions, even when medical interventions offer similar weight loss, but are willing to use adjuvant AOMs post-surgery for additional loss.
Even if a medication could make you lose the same amount of weight as surgery, most patients still prefer surgery. This suggests that surgery offers benefits beyond just the number on the scale, such as durability or health improvements, which patients value highly.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
In response to the item 'If weight loss were the same, which approach to losing weight would you prefer to take?': 43% selected surgery; 23% selected medications; and 33% were uncertain or had no preference.
Why this rating
Self-reported preference from a survey.
Source
Patients experience with preoperative use of anti-obesity medications and associations with bariatric surgery expectations
Jason M. Samuels et al. · medRxiv · 2024
DOI 10.1101/2024.04.14.24305798
preprint · n=105
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Prior use of anti-obesity medications (AOMs) does not alter patient motivations for seeking bariatric surgery, as patients prioritize health and longevity regardless of prior pharmaceutical weight loss attempts.Moderate
- Patients who use anti-obesity medications (AOMs) prior to surgery experience significant weight regain (average 18 kg) upon discontinuation, yet this experience does not change their expectation of weight loss from surgery.Moderate
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