Lower Pregnancy Weight Gain Seen for Women Who Undergo Bariatric Surgery

TUESDAY, Dec. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have undergone bariatric surgery have lower pregnancy weight gain, according to a study published online Dec. 5 in JAMA Network Open.

Huiling Xu, M.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues compared pregnancy weight gain among women with a history of bariatric surgery versus those without in a nationwide, population-based matched cohort study conducted in Sweden. Singleton pregnancies with a history of bariatric surgery were propensity score-matched to pregnancies without such a history (6,388 in each group). Both groups had an early-pregnancy mean body mass index (BMI) of 29.4 kg/m².

The researchers found that women with a history of bariatric surgery had lower pregnancy weight gain than matched controls across all early-pregnancy BMI strata. Between the two groups, the differences in pregnancy weight gain z score values were −0.33, −0.33, −0.21, −0.16, and −0.08 for normal weight, overweight, obese class I, obese class II, and obese class III, respectively. There was no difference seen in pregnancy weight gain by surgical procedure. Lower pregnancy weight gain was seen with a short surgery-to-conception interval (especially within one year) and with lower surgery-to-conception weight loss.

"Pregnancy weight gain is lower in women with a history of bariatric surgery compared with those without, particularly when the surgery-to-conception interval is shorter," the authors write.

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Abstract/Full Text