Arena G, Kitsos A, Hamdorf JM, D’Arcy‐Evans M, Kilpatrick M, Venn A, Preen DB. Evaluation of prescription medication changes following sleeve gastrectomy surgery.
Obes Sci Pract 2024;
10:e742. [PMID:
38352066 PMCID:
PMC10863745 DOI:
10.1002/osp4.742]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Objective
The increasing global prevalence of obesity, coupled with its association with chronic health conditions and rising healthcare costs, highlights the need for effective interventions; however, despite the availability of treatment options, the ongoing success of primary interventions in maintaining long-term weight loss remains limited. This study examined the prescription medication dispensing changes following sleeve gastrectomy in Australians aged 45 years and over.
Methods
In a retrospective analysis of 847 bariatric surgery patients from the New South Wales 45 and Up Study, the assessment of medication patterns categorizing into three groups: gastrointestinal, metabolic, cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and nervous systems was conducted. Each drug class was analyzed, focusing on patients with dispensing records within the 12 months before surgery. This study employed interrupted time-series analysis to compare pre- and post-surgery medication usage.
Results
With a predominantly female population (76.9%) and an average age of 57.2 (standard deviation 5.71), there were statistically significant reductions in both unique medications (12.5% decrease, p = 0.004) and total medications dispensed (15.9% decrease, p = 0.003) from 12 months before surgery to 13-24 months after bariatric surgery. All medication categories, except opioids, showed reductions. Notably, the most significant reductions were observed in diabetes (38.6%), agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system (40.4%), lipid modifying agents (26.5%), anti-inflammatory products (46.3%), and obstructive airway diseases (53.3%) medications during this time frame.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that sleeve gastrectomy provides an effective therapeutic intervention for patients with comorbidities requiring multiple medications, especially for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory and musculoskeletal disorders.
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