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Use of surgery to aid weight reduction—experience of two regions of Northern England: a database study

Wilkinson, J; Summerbell, C; Macknight, N; Bailey, K; Chappel, D

Authors

J Wilkinson

N Macknight

K Bailey

D Chappel



Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the usage of surgery in the management of obesity. DESIGN: Analysis of routine statistics. DATA SOURCES: Hospital Episode Statistics extract held by Public Health Observatories. GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS: Two Government Office Regions in England with a population of 7.6 million. TIME PERIOD: Data analysed in the study covered the 6 y 1996/1997–2001/2002. RESULTS: The availability and uptake of surgery for obesity in the two regions was hugely variable. The overall utilisation of the procedures examined (OPCS operation codes: G30.1, G30.2, G32.10, G61.00) was 5.6 per million per annum, but ranged by Primary Care Trust from zero (the case in eight of the 50 PCTs in the two regions) to 24.0 operations per million per year. The rates of access to this surgery differed over six-fold between the two regions (1.4 operations per year per million population to 7.9 operations per year per million population). The PCTs with the highest rates of surgery, were those closest to the large providers of service. CONCLUSIONS: Access to this intervention is highly variable. Primary Care Trusts in England and service providers need to ensure that there is appropriate access to this effective procedure in carefully selected cases. The surgical expertise required for these operations could be concentrated in fewer centres.

Citation

Wilkinson, J., Summerbell, C., Macknight, N., Bailey, K., & Chappel, D. (2005). Use of surgery to aid weight reduction—experience of two regions of Northern England: a database study. International Journal of Obesity, 29(2), 204-207. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802833

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Feb 1, 2005
Deposit Date May 22, 2009
Journal International Journal of Obesity
Print ISSN 0307-0565
Electronic ISSN 1476-5497
Publisher Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com]
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 29
Issue 2
Pages 204-207
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802833
Keywords Obesity surgery, Morbid obesity, Hospital data.