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Development and Evaluation of the Quality of Life for Obesity Surgery (QOLOS) Questionnaire

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Abstract

Background and Aim

Even though health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is considered an important component of bariatric surgery outcome, there is a lack of HRQOL measures relevant for preoperative and postoperative patients. The objective of the current study was to develop a new instrument assessing HRQOL prior to and following bariatric surgery, entitled Quality of Life for Obesity Surgery (QOLOS) Questionnaire.

Methods

Topics for the QOLOS were initially generated via open-ended interviews and focus groups with 19 postoperative bariatric surgery patients. Qualitative analysis resulted in 250 items, which were rated by patients (n = 101) and experts (n = 69) in terms of their importance. A total of 120 items were retained for further evaluation and administered to 220 preoperative patients and 219 postoperative patients. They also completed a battery of other assessments to analyze issues of construct validity.

Results

Analyses resulted in a 36-item section 1 QOLOS form targeting both preoperative and postoperative aspects across seven domains (eating disturbances, physical functioning, body satisfaction, family support, social discrimination, positive activities, partnership) and a 20-item section 2 QOLOS form focusing on postoperative concerns only (domains: excess skin, eating adjustment, dumping, satisfaction with surgery). Subscales of both sections showed acceptable to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α 0.72 to 0.95) and good convergent and discriminant validity.

Conclusion

The QOLOS represents a reliable and valid instrument to assess HRQOL in preoperative and postoperative patients. Future studies should test the questionnaire in larger samples consisting of patients undergoing different types of surgery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    Astrid Müller, Janine Selle, Alexandra Osterhus & Martina de Zwaan

  2. Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, North Dakota, USA

    Ross D. Crosby

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA

    Ross D. Crosby

  4. Department of Visceral Surgery, Herzogin Elisabeth Hospital, Braunschweig, Germany

    Hinrich Köhler

  5. Department of General, Vascular and Bariatric Surgery, KRH Klinikum Nordstadt, Hannover, Germany

    Julian W. Mall

  6. Social Medicine and Health System Research, Hannover Medical School, Institute of Epidemiology, Hannover, Germany

    Thorsten Meyer

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  1. Astrid Müller
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  2. Ross D. Crosby
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  3. Janine Selle
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Correspondence to Astrid Müller.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Ethical Approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee of the Hannover Medical School and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the German Obesity Competence Network (01GI1324) and by the Else-Kröner-Fresenius Foundation as part of the structured doctoral program “ClinStrucMed.”

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Müller, A., Crosby, R.D., Selle, J. et al. Development and Evaluation of the Quality of Life for Obesity Surgery (QOLOS) Questionnaire. OBES SURG 28, 451–463 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-017-2864-6

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