Photo Credit: Drazen Zigic

There are racial and sex disparities in the discussion of and progression to metabolic and bariatric surgery among eligible patients, according to a study published in the Annals of Surgery Open. The researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of EHRs from a large tertiary academic health system to examine changes in rates of discussion of metabolic and bariatric surgery, and the likelihood of progressing to surgery, between eligible patients and clinicians. The analysis included 122,487 patients, of whom 11,094 (9.1%) discussed surgery with their clinicians; of these, 12.2% progressed to surgery. The researchers found that the annual fraction of patients who discussed surgery with their clinicians increased from 3.2% to 10.0% between 2000 and 2020. Compared with non-Black patients, Black patients were equally likely to discuss surgery with clinicians (9.5% vs 9.0%) but were less likely to progress to surgery (8.4% vs 12.6%). During the study period, these disparities in progression narrowed. Compared with women, men were less likely to discuss (8.1% vs 9.6%) and receive surgery (7.6% vs 14.6%); during the study period, these disparities increased.