Weight loss surgery for diabetics won't increase health costs

Obesity affects 34.9 percent or 78.6 million American adults, the CDC reports, and poses a risk for developing heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems. A new study conducted by Swedish researchers found that diabetics can benefit from weight loss surgery to alleviate problems with blood sugar. In fact, the study claims that bariatric surgery, the procedure in which the stomach size is reduced, is cost-effective and has been shown to promote significant weight loss in obese patients, the Diabetes News Journal reports.

Reuters reports that according to study co-author Martin Neovius of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, "Greater weight should be given to preoperative blood sugar status to help identify the patients who have the most benefit from bariatric surgery. We have shown previously that this makes sense from a health outcomes perspective, and now we show that it makes sense also from an economic perspective."

The study authors found that the healthcare costs of diabetic patients did not increase in the years following bariatric surgery, mostly due to the savings incurred by using less healthcare services and medications.

The study analyzed 4,030 patients over the period of 15 years and a subgroup of these patients had high blood sugar, suggesting that they may be at risk for developing diabetes. Others already had the disease. The diabetic patients underwent bariatric surgery, and the researchers found that the cost of the operation and follow-up care were greater than the patients who did not undergo the procedure. However, researchers also found that for diabetics, those who did go through bariatric surgery and those who refrained, had nearly the same costs after 15 years.

"“To our knowledge, this is the first prospectively controlled study to assess long-term healthcare costs in obesity surgery patients according to their preoperative diabetes status versus matched controls," the research team said in a news release. "We show that for obese patients with type 2 diabetes, the upfront costs of bariatric surgery seem to be largely offset by prevention of future health-care and drug use. This finding of cost neutrality is seldom noted for health-care interventions, nor is it a requirement of funding in most settings."

Neovius and his team concluded that those who have type 2 diabetes should be prioritized for bariatric surgery over obese patients who do not have the disease.

Diabetes News Journal reports that according to Dr. Ricardo Cohen, Director of the Center of Excellence for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Hospital Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil, "Individuals that do not have their diabetes under control with the best pharmacological approach and lifestyle interventions should be prioritized for bariatric surgery, irrespective of their BMI."