Background

Surgical candidates undergo multidisciplinary medical work up, including psychological examinations prior to and after bariatric surgery.

Methods

The methodology and process however, can vary among clinics. We utilized the BariTest, an instrument published by Ghizoni et al. (2022) which is a 59 item instrument scored on a Likert Scale first studied in Brazil in our population to assist bariatric surgeons for surgical appropriateness.

Results

We administered the Baritest to our culturally diverse population in the Western Region and studied the 6 constructs (emotional state, eating behavior, quality of life, relationship with body weight, alcohol consumption, and social support. In a prospective study, we thus far, studied 41 patients who are undergoing bariatric surgery. Females (80.5%) > males, Hispanic 56%, Asian 4.9%, Caucasian 7.3 %, African American 17.1%, and other 9.8%. Mean education 13.41, sd 1.9 and total group BMI = 47.21 kg. In order to compare the two measures, the BariTest construct scores were first converted to z scores using published data and then z scores were transformed to T scores.

Conclusions

The BariTest is a reliable instrument measuring psychological readiness of our diverse patient population. We found strong positive correlations between the BariTest and the PAI clinical scales. While BariTest is a shorter measure and requires less time for patients to complete the test, this lends itself to parsimonious assessment, incorporating efficiency and simplicity in examination while providing an accurate and reliable feedback to the bariatric surgical team.