Exploring isolation, self-directed care and extensive follow-up: factors heightening the health and safety risks of bariatric surgery abroad among Canadian medical tourists

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This article explores first-hand accounts of Canadian bariatric patients’ experiences of seeking and obtaining weight loss surgery abroad through the practice of medical tourism. While researchers have identified many of the challenges and associated health and safety risks imposed on patients by engaging in medical tourism generally, little is known about the specific challenges experienced by Canadians seeking bariatric surgery abroad.Method: To better understand these challenges, we conducted thematic analysis on interviews conducted with 20 former Canadian bariatric tourists.Results: Our analysis illuminated three key challenges Canadians face in obtaining bariatric care: (1) stigma and isolation from friends, family and medical professionals; (2) self-directed navigation of domestic and destination health care systems; and (3) challenges with obtaining adequate follow-up care in Canada.Conclusions: While these challenges identified by participants may occur in other forms of medical tourism, it appears that these challenges are occurring simultaneously in cases of bariatric tourism by Canadians. These challenges appear to work in conjunction to heighten the health and safety risks potential Canadian bariatric tourists may be exposed to. Unless structural changes occur to increase domestic availability of bariatric surgery, Canadians are likely to continue seeking this care abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical tourism
• Canada
• bariatric surgery
• risk
• challenges

Acknowledgments

VAC holds the Canada Research Chair in Health Service Geographies and also a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Data deposition

Not applicable.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Geolocation information

Not applicable.

Notes

1. The WHO classifies the health conditions of overweight and obesity based on body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated as an individual’s weight (in kilograms) divided by their height squared (in metres squared). Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25–29.5 kg/m². Obesity is defined as having a BMI greater than 30 kg/m² (Buchwald et al., 2011; World Health Organization, 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was not supported by any agencies, grants or fellowships.

Notes on contributors

Carly Jackson

Carly Jackson is a qualitative researcher and recent Master’s graduate from Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. This paper was informed by her Master’s thesis research. Her research interests focus on the health and social impacts of health care mobility.

Jeremy Snyder

Jeremy Snyder is a bioethicist and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. His research interests focus on ethical issues in trade in health services, including medical crowdfunding, medical tourism and health worker migration.

Valorie A. Crooks

Valorie A. Crooks is a health geographer and Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests focus on understanding the lived experiences of accessing needed/wanted health and social care services in the areas of; disability and chronic illness; primary health care; palliative health and social care; and medical tourism.

M. Ruth Lavergne

M. Ruth Lavergne is a quantitative researcher and Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests focus on health policy and it’s impacts on health care delivery. Her other research interests include regional variation in health services delivery, rural health, palliative care and health human resources.