The Relationship between Fruit and Vegetable Intake of Adolescents Before Sleeve Gastrectomy and Success with Weight Loss Six Months Post-Surgery

• Main Author: Johnson, Abby L
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University 2014
• Subjects: Obesity; Bariatric Surgery; Weight Loss; Children; Adolescents; Fruits and Vegetables
• Online Access: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/nutrition_theses/52; http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=nutrition_theses

Importance: Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity have more than tripled over the past two decades. Bariatric surgery is becoming more common for adolescents. Currently, there are few studies that describe outcomes after bariatric surgery in adolescents and no studies that describe nutritional behaviors that predict sustained weight loss in this population post-surgery. Objective: To describe pre-surgery dietary intake in adolescents who underwent a sleeve gastrectomy between 2011 and 2013 at an outpatient pediatric weight loss clinic. This study specifically aims to determine whether there is a correlation between fruit and vegetable intake before surgery and weight loss post-surgery in adolescents. Design, Setting, and Participants: The participants in this study received the sleeve gastrectomy procedure. Patients were between the ages of 13-17 years old and had a BMI between 35 kg/m2 to 60 kg/m2. All patients had undergone extensive counseling and assessment by a team of medical professionals (pediatrician, psychologist, exercise physiologist, nurse, and dietitian) for at least six months before surgery. Weekly number of servings of fruits and vegetables, cups of sweetened beverages (separated as fruit juice or soda), servings of fried foods eaten, and meals eaten from or at restaurants as reported at the initial consultation were collected and analyzed. Results: The mean age of participants (n=11) was 17.1 ± 1.51 years. Mean servings of vegetables consumed at baseline was 7.32 ± 4.38 servings per week and mean weekly consumption of fruits was 6.0 ± 4.16 servings per week. There were no statistically significant correlations between baseline fruit (p = 0.50) and vegetable (p = 0.44) consumption with weight (kg) lost six months after surgery. Conclusion: While the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption with weight lost six months post-surgery failed to reach significance, there was a trend such that patients who consumed more servings of fruits and vegetables at baseline had lost more weight at 6 months. It is interesting to note that none of the patients in the study consumed the recommended daily servings of fruits or vegetables at baseline in accordance with the USDA guidelines. A longer study may reveal a more significant relationship between dietary patterns before surgery and changes in weight after surgery.