Bariatric surgery and its influence on alcohol consumption: Differences before and after surgery - A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background

Through new publications on the subject, the main goal of this article is to seek a change in the pattern of alcohol use before and after bariatric surgery.

Methods

We searched the National Library of Medicine, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. We included original articles regarding alcohol consumption before and after bariatric surgery to conduct the systematic review.

Results

Our systematic review, which included 18 articles, yielded mixed results. Meta-analysis of six articles did not reveal statistically significant differences in alcohol use behaviours before and one year after bariatric surgery. However, throughout the perspective of follow-up after bariatric surgery, nine out of the twelve articles showed improvement in the pattern of alcohol consumption when evaluated up to two years after the end of the surgical period, and four out of the five articles with monitoring beyond two years showed worsening in consumption, compared to pre-surgery alcohol use behaviours.

Conclusions

Conclusions about the relationship between alcohol consumption and bariatric surgery are challenging primarily because of the variety of the methods used and the alcohol consumption measures. Despite that, our research pointed to an increased risk of alcohol use disorders two years after bariatric surgery.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• bariatric
• roux-en-Y-gastric
• gastric by-pass
• weight loss surgery
• sleeve
• balloon
• gastric banding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).