Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To determine the usage of surgery in the management of obesity.
DESIGN:
Analysis of routine statistics.
DATA SOURCES:
Hospital Episode Statistics extract held by Public Health Observatories.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS:
Two Government Office Regions in England with a population of 7.6 million.
TIME PERIOD:
Data analysed in the study covered the 6 y 1996/1997–2001/2002.
RESULTS:
The availability and uptake of surgery for obesity in the two regions was hugely variable. The overall utilisation of the procedures examined (OPCS operation codes: G30.1, G30.2, G32.10, G61.00) was 5.6 per million per annum, but ranged by Primary Care Trust from zero (the case in eight of the 50 PCTs in the two regions) to 24.0 operations per million per year. The rates of access to this surgery differed over six-fold between the two regions (1.4 operations per year per million population to 7.9 operations per year per million population). The PCTs with the highest rates of surgery, were those closest to the large providers of service.
CONCLUSIONS:
Access to this intervention is highly variable. Primary Care Trusts in England and service providers need to ensure that there is appropriate access to this effective procedure in carefully selected cases. The surgical expertise required for these operations could be concentrated in fewer centres.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Noel HP, Pugh JA . Management of overweight and obese adults. BMJ 2002; 325: 757–761.
Steinbrook R . Surgery for severe obesity. N Engl J Med 2004; 350: 1075–1079.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). 2004. Available from: URL: http://www.nice.org.uk.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Guide on the use of surgery to aid weight reduction for people with morbid obesity. London; 2002 July 1. Report No.: 46.
Directions to Primary Care Trusts and NHS trusts in England concerning the arrangements for the Funding of Technology Appraisal Guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence—National Health Service Act 1997, 2003.
The Cochrane Library. Surgery for morbid obesity, (Cochrane Review). John Wiley: Chichester; 2003.
Department of Health. The health survey for England. Stationery Office: London; 2001.
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Tabular list of the classification of surgical procedures, (Fourth Revision). The Stationery Office: London; 1997.
Department of Health. Specialised morbid obesity services (all ages)—Definitions No 35, 2004.
Acheson D . Independent inquiry into inequalities in health. The Stationery Office: London; 1998.
Department of Environment Transport and the Regions. Indices of multiple deprivation. The Stationery Office: London; 2000.
Acknowledgements
Competing interests: None. Ethical approval: Not required. Details of Funding: Public Health Observatories receive core funding from the Department of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilkinson, J., Summerbell, C., Macknight, N. et al. Use of surgery to aid weight reduction—experience of two regions of Northern England: a database study. Int J Obes 29, 204–207 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802833
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802833
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Obesity Surgery in England: An Examination of the Health Episode Statistics 1996–2005
Obesity Surgery (2007)