Post-bariatric body image: relationship with body dissatisfaction, anxiety and depression

Introduction and objective: With the advent of sedentarization of man until the current development of the contemporary world, obesity has taken for itself an increasing space in our society, being today the reality of more than half of Brazilians. As a result, the present study aims to evaluate the impact after bariatric surgery on the drastic change in body image and on the levels of anxiety and depression in obeses patients. Materials and Methods: a sociodemographic questionnaire, the HAD Scale and the Brazilian Scale of Figures for Adults were applied to 83 patients. Statistical analysis of the data obtained was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), version 20.0 for Windows. Results: the results obtained revealed a relationship between the body dissatisfaction index and the patient's actual BMI, in addition to showing that the greater the dissatisfaction, the greater the image distortion index. Furthermore, the study revealed a moderate prevalence of anxiety in patients after the procedure. Conclusion: in view of the results presented, it is suggested that the body image after bariatric surgery is subject to different degrees of distortion, which can lead to depressive and anxious symptoms in the patient. However, the weight loss process is multifactorial, so the surgical procedure, even having a significant impact, cannot be considered as an isolated factor.