Children's weight status, body esteem, and self-concept after maternal gastric bypass surgery.

Background: There is little research on the effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery on the patients' offspring's weight and psychosocial well-being. The present study investigates how children are affected in terms of weight status, body esteem, and self-concept after maternal RYGB.

Methods: Sixty-nine women and their families were recruited from RYGB waiting lists at 5 Swedish hospitals. Data was collected during home visits 3 months before and 12 months after RYGB. Anthropometrical measures were taken, and the children completed the Body Esteem Scale (BES) and the Beck Self-Concept Inventory (BYI-S).

Results: Prevalence or relative risk in weight status between the time points were explored using Poisson regression models (General Estimating Equations). We found stronger statistical evidence for a decreased risk of overweight (RR = .85, 57.0% versus 48.6%, P = .048), than for obesity (RR = .87, 18.2% versus 15.9%, P = .447). The boys' body esteem increased slightly, whilst the girls' did not. There were no significant differences in mean BYI-S scores.

Conclusions: The reasons behind the statistically significant decrease in overweight but not obesity risk in children after maternal RYGB may be caused by insufficient statistical power to detect changes in obesity risk alone. Body esteem seems to be slightly positively affected in boys 9 months after maternal RYGB. Longer follow-up times and larger samples would be useful in future research.